Iron Man: Armored Secrets
by Sailor Phoenix1997
Summary: It all started with a baby's birth and one boy coming to his new home, neither expected to become entangled in a web of lies, betrayal nor find friends and love along the way. Rated for safety.
1. Chapter 1

**Phoenix: Hello readers. My name is Sailor Phoenix1997 and I LIVE! After months of silence I'm finally writing again. School stifles creativity. Please review.**

**Prequel**

**By Sailor Phoenix1997**

The white walls of the hospital and occasional green or blue doctor's scrubs were starting to become a bore. Howard Stark sighed for what must've been the hundredth time and ran his hand over the white-pale hair of the small girl dozing off on his leg. She couldn't have been any older than three or four years old. Her skin was the same white color of milk or snow, as was her hip-length hair and her eyes were a deep, bright blue. She was dressed in a little dark blue sailor dress with a white cape tied onto her neck. A small gold chain hung from her neck, holding a small silver ring with a heart-shaped ruby with a tiny diamond on either side.

"Tony's late," she said quietly as she fiddled with the ring. Howard Stark pushed some of his dark brown-near-black hair out of his face and rubbed his growing-in moustache as he patted the girl on the head.

"I know honey. But your cousin's coming soon."

"How soon?"

"Well, sweetheart, he doesn't know the exact time so of course he's going to be a little late. So as his cousin, I'm going to be counting on you to teach him a thing or two." The little girl looked up at her uncle, eyes shining.

"I teach Tony not to be late!" Howard Stark nodded as the door closest to them and a nurse walked out with a crying blue bundle.

"Mr. Stark?" Howard stood from his seat and the girl hopped off to follow. The nurse gently handed over the bundle to Howard. The man looked somewhat expectantly at the nurse, who shook her head and shut the door.

Howard pressed his lips into a thin line before the girl started pulling on his pant leg. Slowly, he got down to her level and pulled the blanket away to reveal the blue-eyed infant inside who had a small amount of dark hair on the top of his head.

"Hi Tony. I'm Kisara. I teach you not to be late!" Howard smiled and kissed his niece and newborn son before pulling them both into a hug.

* * *

**16 years later.**

The setting sun sent the room of one Joseph Wheeler into a scarlet masterpiece. Said blonde-haired boy blew his bangs out of his face, only to have them fall back again.

"What's going through your head Joey?" asked his brunette, brown-eyed best friend, Tristan Taylor.

"Just excited, I guess," Joey replied as he set another sealed box onto a dolly and looked around his room again. Beside his bed and desk, most of everything was packed up in the dozen or so boxes that now cluttered his floor. "Ya know, there mighta been a few times I just wanted it all ta end, but I'm gonna miss dis old place."

"City as well?" Tristan asked. Joey nodded.

"Some parts, yea. Others, not so much. But it'll all be worth it to be away from Dad, with Ma and Serenity-"

"And don't forget that I'm moving with you man," Tristan said with a grin. "I'm your right-hand, dude. There's no way I'm letting you go off on your own to New York. Besides, Téa wants us to take pics for her and knowing you, you'd just forget." Joey snarled playfully before grabbing the handles of the dolly and headed for the door of the room.

"Jus' don' you forget dat dis is my family and I'll protect 'em from anythin' and anyone, dat includes you!"

"Ha ha ha," Tristan said. "Look, it's either you or Devlin and I think I'd rather be with someone who's got half a brain that's one hundred percent dedicated to the people he cares for than someone who has a whole brain that's only concerned with himself."

"I smell jealousy," Joey stated in a somewhat sing-song voice.

"Well, dogs do have better noses than humans." Joey growled at his friend and entered the hall before he stopped again.

"Look, no more of Kaiba's dog jokes when we get to New York. And don't forget, our flight's tonight and you're going to need-"

"My school transcripts. Thanks mom."

"Yea, real funny Tristan."

* * *

**Phoenix: Well, my fingers go out of control again. They do that now and again. It scares me sometimes. Now, be nice with the reviews. I'm new to this kind of story. But we'll see you next time. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Phoenix: Okay, time for a little thank you.**

**To Autobot00001: Thank you for being my first reviewer! **

**To K5Rakitan: Thank you for your support and I hope you like this chapter.**

**To SilverPedlas1402: Here's the new update. Hope you like. **

**Well, that's everyone but I'm not complaining. But please go check out the other stories as well. They're not all that bad you know.**

**Everything has a Price**

**By Sailor Phoenix1997**

"Hurry up Tristan," Joey called as he slung his duffle bag over his shoulder. Tristan sighed as he waited for his suitcases to come off the baggage claim.

"I would but the plane staff haven't even brought my luggage to the claim yet! Be patient man!" Joey groaned. "I know you're excited to see your sister man, but calm down. We don't have school until we're settled in and that's not until next week."

"Yea, but dat doesn't mean Serenity ain't got school in da mornin'. And I wan' as much time as possible with my sister. We're sophomores man. Serenity'll be coming to high school next year when we're juniors and after we graduate I don' even want to think of what some bulgin'-muscles-thick-headed-"

"Joey!" The voice of the auburn-haired, grey-green-eyed girl snapped Joey out of his rant as she wove through all the other people in the airport and ran into her big brother's arms. "Joey! You're finally here!" Joey smiled at his sister as he hugged her back and lifted her off the floor a little. "Mom's parking the car. She'll be here in a minute." Serenity looked past her brother and her smiled broadened. "Tristan! You came too?"

"Uh…Oh…Uh…Me? Oh yea. I came. No biggie." Almost instantly, he was silenced by Serenity's seemingly frail arms giving him the biggest, hardest bear hug he'd ever been given in his life. What surprised him more was that this girl – who barely came up to her brother's shoulder and was half his width – was able to lift him clean off the floor before a loud pop came from his back and she promptly let go.

"Sorry. Sometimes, I just get so excited…" she said somewhat nervously as she twirled a strand of hair around her finger, a faint shade of pink dusting over her cheeks and nose.

For a moment, no one said anything until a woman stepped through the crowd. She had the same brown eyes Joey did but her short, curly hair was a grayish-auburn color. Her face was mostly smooth with a few small crinkles near the corners of her eyes. She was dressed in an off-white suit with a light yellow shirt underneath, a worn brown briefcase in her hand and a pair of kitten heeled shoes that matched her suit.

She smiled kindly at the three.

"Hello Joseph," she said as she stepped behind Joey. The blonde nearly jumped as he whirled around. His face broke into a wide grin.

"Hey Ma," he said as he hugged his mother. She returned the gesture and pulled away to kiss her son's cheek – a feat that required her to go on tip-toe to do.

"You've grown since the last time I saw you," she remarked before turning to Tristan and Serenity. "And you're…Trevor?"

"Tristan, Miss…" the brunette corrected. Joey's mother waved a hand.

"Please, feel free to call me Moira. Now then, once we have everything, we can go home, settle down and have a nice chat. What say you three?" The children nodded and turned back to the near-abandoned baggage claim where two large black suitcases were just coming out on the belt. "Are those your bags Tristan?"

The brunette nodded and made little time in gathering them before the group left the airport and packed Joey and Tristan's things into the back of the little black Mercury that belonged to Joey's mother.

"Wow Ma," Joey remarked as he and Tristan buckled up in the back while Serenity rode shotgun. "Not many people in New York own a car."

"This is Mrs. Rhodes' car, Joseph. She lent it to me to pick you up."

"Who's Mrs. Rhodes?" Tristan asked as they began to leave the parking garage.

"Mrs. Rhodes is my mentor. When I came here with Serenity she offered to help us until we got on our feet. She's a lawyer with a Harvard degree. I started Law school soon after we settled in and she was a huge help. In exchange for our residence in her home, I help out wherever I can. Putting dinner on the table, shopping for groceries, ect, ect. She's got a son names James but you can call him Rhodey. He's roughly your age and you'll be attending Tomorrow Academy with him."

"Cool!"

"Oh! Don't forget about Tony!" Serenity said. Joey immediately leaned forward, his eyebrows furrowing and his smile gone.

"Who's Tony? Where does he live? How old is he? Does he work? And what's goin' on between him and Serenity?" he asked in a rather sped-up tone. Serenity laughed, quickly turning it into a cough with a glance from her mother.

"Tony is Anthony Edward Stark. He's a friend of Rhodey's. The last time I checked he's…fifteen or sixteen years old. Somewhere around there. He's privately tutored by his father, Howard Stark, who also happens to be good friends with Mrs. Rhodes. He works with his father at their company, Stark International. And the only thing between him and Serenity is a good friendship since we moved in with the Rhodes. Is that all Joseph?" Moira teased. Serenity giggled again

Joey grumbled something about how it wasn't funny and sat back in his chair, crossing his arms with a light pout.

* * *

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were used for Joey and Tristan getting comfortable and unpacking all Joey's things that had been shipped over. Mrs. Rhodes – a kind-hearted, well-meaning African-American woman acted as if this was a sleepover and it was her responsibility to make sure the boys had every comfort of home. She told them about the one time she'd been over at a friend's for a sleepover, had gotten a toothache late at night and was too scared to wake her friend's mother, and in the morning she'd woken up with an infected tooth and had to have it removed.

Rhodey was just as eager as his mother to make the boys feel at home. He gave them a tour of the house and the shut-down compound that the house was stationed in front of. He showed them around New York and even gave them a private tour of Tomorrow Academy.

It was on Monday morning that Tristan and Joey first met Tony Stark. He was somewhat skinny with dark black hair and bright blue eyes that popped out against his near-pale skin.

He'd been talking to Rhodey when the boys walked in.

"Come on Rhodey, it's just one thing I really need to show you," he said.

"What's goin' on here?" Joey asked with a piece of toast in his mouth. Both Rhodey and Tony jumped. Upon seeing the two boys, Rhodey heaved a sigh of relief, while Tony still looked startled.

"Don't worry man, these are just Moira's son, Joey, and his friend Tristan," Rhodey said, gesturing to each boy in turn. Tony nodded.

"Nice to meet you. Tony Stark," he said as he stood up and extended his hand to Joey, who gave it a good, hard shake.

"Joey Wheeler."

"Tristan Taylor," Tristan said as he copied Joey's gesture when Tony's hand was extended to him.

"So what was goin' on here?" Joey repeated.

"Tony just wants me to see a new invention of his," Rhodey said as he stood and joined the other boys.

"Invention?" Joey asked, looking at the teen. Tony chuckled.

"Yea, I invent stuff in my spare time to top what my dad makes and then he tries to invent things to top mine. But he won't be able to top this one. You guys want to see too?" Joey and Tristan shook their heads.

"Sorry man, but we've gotta head to school and turn in da last of our papers, get out schedules and make sure we know our way around. Maybe another time," Joey said as he and Tristan left the house, leaving Tony and Rhodey alone.

"Well, that just leaves you. You wanna come see?" Rhodey shrugged.

"Sure." Tony smiled.

"Okay then, let's go."

* * *

Rhodey could never get over how his best friend, the great Tony Stark, could stand to work in such a messy environment. Tools were strewn everywhere, CD cases, earbuds, books, random doodles and designs littered the desk and nearly buried the computer there. As much as he would've loved to go over and at least put the papers in a neat stack, he dared not move  
while Tony was working with a welding mask on and a welding torch in his hand, sending sparks flying from his red and gold project.

Finally, Tony straightened up and dusted off his red t-shirt and jeans before lifting his mask.

"Done, what do you think?" he asked. Rhodey looked over his shoulder at a hunk of gold and red metal shaped like a person roughly Tony's or his own height.

"Colorful, but you know your dad's just gonna invent something to top this. You two are like dueling evil geniuses," Rhodey said as he crossed his arms over his chest. Tony chuckled and shook his head.

"No way. This one's different Rhodey. He's gonna freak out. Come with me to show him," Tony urged. Rhodey chuckled.

"Yea. Some of us have to go to school Tony, ya ever heard of it?" Tony rubbed his chin and shook his head.

"Sounds awful. I'll call you tonight to tell ya how it went." Rhodey chuckled again.

"Yea, I'm holding my breath starting…" He pushed up his sleeve and checked his watch, "Now." Tony and Rhodey started laughing as Tony lightly pushed his friend away from the armor.

* * *

Tony could almost barely contain his excitement as he headed through his father's company, greeting everyone. The random executives running around, the security guard at the elevator on the floor his father worked on, and his father's secretary.

Tony peeked into his father's office, to see the older man bent over his desk, talking on the phone and working on a hard-hologram that hovered over the wood. On the desk was a plaque with Howard Stark written in bold print and on either side was a framed picture. One Tony knew, was of him and his father and it had been taken very recently. The second one was of his father, himself and his older cousin Kisara on the Fourth of July. She'd vanished when she was sixteen with hardly a word to her uncle or Tony about where she was going or if she'd ever return.

It had been nearly three years since then.

Tony shook his head and walked towards his dad and as he did, he noticed his father's ear being occupied by his earpiece cell phone.

"No, go ahead and proceed with the Earth Mover trail run. I'll be there in an hour and I'll have the ring with me," Howard said as moved some images around on the holograms. "Good. See you then."

"Are the laser systems I designed for Earth Mover up and running yet or are you still stuck in Ancient History mode?" Tony teased as his father turned off the holograms and raised the blinds, letting the office fill with morning light, illuminating pictures of the Sphinx and an old city.

Howard chuckled at his son's teasing.

"Very funny," he said as he removed the ear piece. "They've already completed testing the lasers and they're using them in the field today. Wanna come see it with me?" Tony smirked and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Actually, I've got something to show you." Tony said. "At the testing grounds. Something big."

"Big huh? Well in that case-"

"Howard!" The shout startled Tony, making him jump and spin around to face a severe-looking, bald man who almost looked Asian or Indian in appearance, shove by his dad's secretary, Trish. In his hand was a manila envelope with the word "Rejected" stamped on in big red letters.

"It's okay Trish," Howard said before turning to the man. "What can I do for you Obadiah?" The man – Obadiah – held up the envelope, now beginning to crinkle in his grip.

"Why did you reject my proposal for repurposing the Earth Movers? The military will pay billions for them once they've been modified," he explained, trying to keep his anger in check but it was still very obvious.

"Modified?" Howard demanded, not sliding into anger or frustration. "You wanted to turn an invention intended to make people's lives better into a weapon. That's not going to happen." Tony smiled at his dad, a sense of pride bubbling in his chest that he could call such a man his father; someone who looked out for other people rather than lining his pockets.

"This is insane Howard!" Obadiah continued. "You're costing this company and our shareholders a-"

"Fortune," Howard stated, having heard this argument from Obadiah before. "I know. But Stark International is my company."

"Howard," Obadiah growled before trying to regain his composure, "Please, be reasonable."

"It's my company. And my word is final. Now Mr. Stane, don't you have other work to do?" Howard said in a tone that didn't allow for any kind of argument. Obadiah Stane growled before turning sharply and leaving the office.

"I don't think Obadiah is too happy with you." Howard chuckled and placed a hand on his son's shoulder.

"I think you're right. Now, we've got one quick stop to make, and then we'll see what's got you so excited."

* * *

Tony shifted in his seat as his and his father's private jet sped through the skies toward the archeological site.

"Some historians have theorized that the Chinese had explorers in the New World long before the Europeans did. The archeological site we've found, the artifacts we're recovering from it, it's a mystery that has everything to do with the Makluan Rings," Howard said, his excitement growing as he spoke. Tony rested his head on his fist.

"Wow is that boring," he said, getting a chuckle from his father.

"Well the Chinese thought the Rings were magic, but from what we're learning I think they may actually be a form of technology. Imagine Tony, technology more advanced than our own but hundreds if not thousands of years before the Industrial Revolution." As he continued, Howard looked down at his right hand. On the middle finger was a small gold ring with a green stone set on top that almost looked like a flame with Chinese characters written on the stone. Tony just sighed from boredom.

"For someone who's supposed to be shaping the future, your hobbies are really old-school," he said, forcing himself not to yawn. Howard chuckled again.

"Well take a look smart-guy," he said as he leaned towards the window. "There's your genius at work down there." Tony did as told.

Under their plane was a massive machine with six legs surrounded by trucks and bulldozers in an abandoned area of the desert landscape. Tony smiled as their plane began to land.

* * *

"Hard-light laser, targeting system that _you _invented acts like a scalpel," Howard said as he and Tony watched the Earth Mover Moved over the site of the dig and the laser began to light up before shooting its blast into the earth, revealing ancient statues of Chinese men nearly the same height at the Earth Mover itself, leaving the rest of the rock vaporized. "Combined with real-time seismographic readings, the Earth Mover will not only revolutionize archeology but just imagine the benefits for disaster relief. Cave-ins, collapsed buildings, your invention will save lives," Howard said as he smiled at his child. Tony bent over the railing with a smirk.

"It also made your last invention look like a 5th grade science project," Tony chuckled.

"Yea…And that's why I'm grounding you for a month," Howard said, obviously joking. Tony looked up at his father, not believing what he'd heard and not getting the joke.

"What?!"

"You're so easy it's not even fun," Howard muttered as a scientist wearing a white lab coat and carrying a small metal box walked up.

"Howard?" he said, opening the box. Howard pulled the ring off his finger and placed it in.

"Whoa, giving up your magic ring?" he teased his father as he straightened up and the specialist walked away.

"Only for the day. We're doing a comparative-analysis with it and some of the artifacts we've been finding here at the site," Howard explained as he wrapped an arm around Tony's shoulders. "The more we can learn about it, the better chance we have to unlock the Ring's secrets. 'Kay genius, let's get to the testing grounds and see what you've got."

* * *

Joey sighed as he took a seat, leaning against the metal of the water tower support beams with his lunch in his lap.

"Finally, a chance to eat," he said as Tristan and Rhodey followed his lead.

"I know, right man?" Rhodey said.

"And to think, this is just day one," Tristan said.

"Joey Wheeler?" asked a new voice. All three boys turned to see a girl roughly their age dressed in a pink-lilac shirt over a white button-up one, a pink tie around her neck, a plaid skirt, ark leggings and dark sneakers with short red hair walking up to them. "As in Joseph Wheeler, second place in Duelist Kingdom, Fourth place in Battle City, only non-placement in a tournament was with Zeigfried von Schroder in the Kaibaland opening Tournament?" Joey sighed.

"Finally, I get some respect." The girl ran over and looked him over carefully.

"Well, I ought to have respect for a guy who took a three million dollar prize and gave all of it to his little sister's operation so she wouldn't go blind. That was so sweet. I'm Pepper Potts by the way." Joey nodded before shaking her hand.

"Nice to meet ya Pepper. These are my friends Rhodey and Tristan." The two boys nodded a greeting at her.

"How do you know all that stuff on Joey?" Tristan asked.

"My dad's in the FBI," Pepper stated as if she were talking about the weather.

* * *

Tony had expected a nice, quiet ride to the testing grounds but alas, 'twas not to be. Trish called just before the landing.

"I'm sorry Howard," she said through the holographic call. "It's Mr. Stane. He insists on talking to you."

"It's okay Trish, put him through." Trish vanished from the holographic sphere and Howard pinched the bridge of his nose. "I think I'm going to have to let Obadiah go. He's become obsessed with weapons." Tony sighed. There were a lot of things he didn't like and seeing his father upset was one of them.

"A million dollars says this is about the Earth Movers again," he said, trying to lighten the mood.

"You're on," Howard said, a smile coming to his face. Tony returned the gesture as he stood up.

"I'm going to go prep before we land," he said as Obadiah Stane's face appeared in the holographic sphere.

"Howard, I want to talk to you about the Earth Mover deal."

"Hooray! I'm rich! Tony joked as he continued on his way. He didn't see his father scowl.

"I'm giving you one last chance to approve this Howard," Stane said.

"Well I'm going to have to refuse one last time then Obadiah." Tony immediately began ignoring what his father was saying. This was going to be a private conversation between Howard Stark and Obadiah Stane and he really had no part in it.

To further respect his father's privacy, Tony shut the metal door that separated his father from the project he'd shown Rhodey. Turning to his masterpiece, he punched in the code he'd set and waited for the metal to open.

A low humming noise began in the other room, a white light shining through the metal grate in the door. Tony covered his eyes to avoid being blinded as the humming and light grew more intense.

"DAD!" Tony yelled as the plane exploded.

* * *

**Pheonix: Don't hate me. It's just I don't want to do the six months later thing right now. I'm exhausted and I've barely done anything all day! Does this happen to all writers? Well, review, read the other stories and review on them too please. I've got piano to practice right now and remember to be nice.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Phoenix: Well, I have no idea what's going on in my head right now. I've got my crossovers going through my head, my many stories that aren't crossovers and my own life. Am I going crazy or something?! Or am I just overloading myself? You know, a part of me wishes I was back at school where my mind would be a blank for creativity so I could at least make something out for myself. Please review and check out the other stories, especially my new one: Shouldn't have Happened. **

**Iron, Forged in Fire, Part 1: Iron Man Rising**

**By Sailor Phoenix1997**

Sunlight filtered through the skylight in Tony's new room, the only other light coming from the large, circular implant in the middle of his chest. Small wire-like veins spread from the metal to the middle of his pecs.

Tony sighed, keeping his breathing as slow and deep as he could. He could hear the mechanical whirring-mixed-with-liquid-like sound of his implant forcing his heart to follow with two strong pumps of his blood through his body.

For six months this had been his routine, wake up before his alarm clock, stare at the sky outside and listen to the new noises his body made.

As planned, his alarm went off with a loud, rapid "Bee-eee-eep! Bee-eee-eep! Bee-eee-eep!"

Annoyed after the third tone, Tony snapped up in bed and turned off the alarm and pinched the bridge of his nose. Today was the first day he, Anthony Edward Stark, would be attending high school. The upside was it was also Serenity Wheeler's first day as a freshman. Joey, Tristan and Rhodey were going to help him as well as Mrs. Rhodes and Moira.

He stayed in his seated position for a few moments before Mrs. Rhodes came into his room, filling the room with the hallway light.

"Breakfast is ready Tony," she said kindly. Tony nodded.

"Thanks Mrs. Rhodes," he replied miserably. Mrs. Rhodes walked over and sat down beside him. Tony looked over at her. She probably had a case today. She was dressed in a pair of khaki pants, a white button-up shirt and a blue sweater over that. "I'll be down in a minute."

"James, Joey, Serenity and Tristan are already downstairs. "Once you're finished eating, you all can go over to Stark International, then head to school." Tony didn't show any signs of being excited or even mildly amused. "It'll be okay Tony. You'll see." Tony looked up at her and smiled a little.

Mrs. Rhodes hugged him gently and then left the room so Tony could get dressed, neither of them noticing Serenity in the hall until she entered Tony's room and shut the door behind her. Tony snapped his head up at the little auburn-haired girl.

"Serenity? Is something wrong?" Serenity let out a long sigh and sat down next to Tony.

"Listen Tony, I understand some of the stuff you're going through. When I was little, Joey once took me to the beach when Mom and Dad were fighting. We spent the whole day there, actually, building sandcastles, playing in the water, even trying to find the biggest shell possible. But then, pretty much the next day, Mom took me away with some of our stuff because my dad had gotten drunk the night before. I don't miss my father, heck he can rot for all I care. But I remember how upset Joey looked when Mom and I were driving away. I was crying too. But Mom only left him behind because he was both older and much more of a fighter. Also, the court system believed it would be better for Joey to grow up with our father while I lived with our mother. We spent quite a few years apart without seeing each other and every day I thought about Joey, but now that he's here, I don't have to worry as much as before." Tony arched an eyebrow.

"Your point please?"

"My point is, you're as much of our family now as Joey is my brother by blood. Okay?" Serenity said as she placed a hand on Tony's shoulder. The raven-haired boy smiled at her, noting what she was wearing for the first time: a white long-sleeve shirt with a little blue sailor-like cape around her neck with a ribbon tied from under her collar, and a long blue skirt.

"Thanks Renie. I'll try not to let ya down." Serenity hugged Tony and stood up.

"I don't think you will," she assured.

* * *

"Can you check again?" Tony asked the black-clad security guard in front of Stark International. "I have an appointment." The man looked him and his four friends over again.

"And you said your name was?" Tony was starting to get annoyed. This was the third time he'd done this.

"Tony. Tony Stark," the teen said, trying to hide his annoyance.

"Yea you know," Rhodey jumped in, "as in Stark International, the company you work for!" The man pressed a button on the side of his earpiece.

"Yes, kid says he's got an appointment. Says his name is Stark…Uh-huh…Uh-huh…." He removed his finger and looked at Tony and Serenity. "You can go up," he said.

"Finally," Tristan muttered as they all started on their way but the man stuck out his arm after Tony and Serenity passed.

"Not you, just them."

"What?!" Joey grabbed hold of the man's collar and pulled him down so they were eye-to-eye. "Listen here, dat's my ba-"

"Joey! No!" Serenity cried. "It's fine. I've got Tony with me. And it shouldn't be too long. We'll be back soon." Joey snarled and released the guard, crossed his arms and mumbled something incoherent under his breath. Rhodey reached past the guard and pulled Tony towards himself.

"You sure you're up for this?"

"Yea…Hey, it's still my dad's company right?" Tony said as he looked up at where his father's office used to be.

* * *

Serenity clung to Tony's arm tightly as the guard escorted them through the building. Under different circumstances, Tony would've complained but right then and there, he was please for the auburn-haired girl's tight grip. It told him he was not dreaming, but what he was walking through had to be a dream. None of the employees were walking around conversing with each other, or even laughing at the water station anymore. Everyone was silent and working in their own cubicle and dressed in black. Tony normally would've been able to tell who was who by their smiling face, the way their clothes fit themselves, and the personal touches everyone used to have. But now, he couldn't tell one person from another.

Only one face was familiar. His father's secretary.

"Trish!" Tony said. He walked towards her but the guard put a hand on his shoulder, making Serenity gasp and Tony stop in his tracks.

"Mr. Stane will see you now Tony," Trish said as she continued her typing. She sounded so sorry, as if she wanted to say more but if she did, she'd lose her job.

* * *

"No that's right, I want them brought up to the specs the military sent over. You have my authorization as CEO," Stane said as Tony and Serenity entered the now dark room. Tony shivered. Obadiah Stane had done so little but still so much to the one place besides his house he considered to be his home. Serenity gripped Tony's arm tighter still.

"It'll be okay, just stay close to me," Tony whispered.

The man behind the changes turned around in his stiff-looking black swivel chair.

"What's going on Obadiah?" Tony asked as he and Serenity sat down. "What are you doing with-"

"Tony, Tony, Tony. Don't worry. Stark International is in good hands," Stane said as he laced his fingers together and set his elbows on the desk. "Nothing you need to concern over. I'm so sorry we didn't get a chance to talk after your father's funeral. It hit us all so hard." Stane's eyes flicked over to Serenity, making the girl inch towards the edge of her seat closest to Tony. "But you have my word, I'll personally take care of everything until you're legally ready to step in." Tony's eyes narrowed somewhat.

"I want to be involved. My father built this company and he wanted-"

"This is what your father wanted Tony. He wanted you living with the Rhodes, going to school, being a normal kid." Tony released a long, heavy sigh, trying to keep himself calm.

"I want all my father's notes and my research and-"

"Everything you and your father worked on is company property. Stark International is not your personal playground, it's a business." He turned to Serenity, making her grip her seat a little harder. "However, I could use a personal assistant. It's a good position that needs a willing subject. Perhaps you Miss. Flexible schedule, good pay, and the only thing you really have to do is get the files I need and attend meetings with me." Stane's words turned from the hard speech of a CEO to an attempted purr that came out more like a primal growl.

"Uh…Hm…I'm sorry Mr. Stane but I'm only just starting high school. Perhaps when I'm older I could reconsider your generous proposal if the job is still available," she said in as kind of a voice as possible. Stane probably couldn't detect much but Tony, having lived with this girl for the majority of six months could tell that she wanted nothing more than to get out of there.

"Well, thank you anyway Miss…" Stane hesitated, noting he had never acquired the girl's name.

"Wheeler. Serenity Wheeler," said the auburn-haired girl sharply. With a sharp hiss, Trish appeared on a hologram from the desk.

"Mr. Stane, your next appointment is here," she informed timidly. Another hiss and she was gone and Stane rose from his chair, walking around his desk so nothing was between him and the teenagers.

"Glad we had this talk Tony, and I'll see you again when you turn 18," Stane said as he extended his hand. Tony's eyes narrowed almost dangerously at the sight of his father's ring sitting on Stane's middle finger.

* * *

The sound of car horns was sweet music compared to the stifling silence of Stark International.

"Hey, how'd it-" Rhodey started as Tony and Serenity walked out, only to be stopped when Tony yanked his backpack off, threw it down on the ground and kicked it as hard as he could while Serenity ran into her brother's arms and started sobbing.

"What happened Serenity?" Joey asked, brushing his fingers through his sister's hair.

"Th-that horrible man!" she said through sobs. "I th-thi-think he w-was hitting on m-me!" Joey's grip on his sister tightened, not enough to hurt her but enough to make her feel safe.

"Why dat jerk! I'll punch his lights out!" Joey snarled as the group started to school.

* * *

"Hey look at it this way. In two years, you get to fire him. It'll be worth the wait," Rhodey said as they neared the multi-story, red-brick building that was Tomorrow Academy. Tony sighed as they climbed the steps to enter.

"Do we have to do this, this…school thing? Can't we just ditch or something? I can show you guys the lab I've been fixing up," Tony said as the group started down the hall.

"No way man," Joey said as he let Serenity dart off from his grip and into her first class. "If our moms found out we skipped ya first day here, dey'd crush us."

"Yea, they _are _lawyers, remember?" Rhodey agreed. Tony sighed and shook his head.

"Why would my dad want me to go to school anyway? I mean he taught me everything I need to-" Not noticing where he was going, Tony had walked right into someone, sending their things to the floor, along with them.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry!" The girl Tony had knocked over was dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans and had long straight black hair that hid her face and tumbled down her back as she scrambled to collect her books and papers off the floor, apologizing over and over again. Joey and Tony bent down and started helping her.

"Hey, it's alright," Tony said. The girl looked up, her blue eyes nearly covered in her dark hair. Joey smirked a little as he collected her things from Tony and handed them to her.

"Tony this is Sarah. Sarah, Tony Stark." Sarah nodded and shook Tony's hand before turning to Joey.

"Nice to see you again Joey. I hope we have some classes together this year," Sarah said. Joey nodded. "And Tony, I'm very sorry for your loss, even if my apology's a bit late." Tony nodded.

"Its fine, thanks for your support," he said. Sarah smiled and walked off in the direction of class.

"Ya know, maybe I should give this a try," Tony said as he watched Sarah run off.

* * *

The first period was math.

Tony was pleased that Rhodey, Joey, Tristan, and Sarah were in his class. What didn't please him was how hopelessly simple the advanced class was to him.

The teacher – an older man in a beige suit and dark round glasses hanging on the end of his nose – was writing out an equation.

"What you are looking at is said to be the hardest math equation in the world and has yet to be solved," he said. Joey groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Now, what we're working on today is far less-"

"Sir?" Tony said with his hand raised. Joey and Tristan held their breaths as the teacher turned around. Tony smirked a little and scanned the equation. "42?" he said, answering the equation. The teacher looked back at the board and adjusted his glasses in disbelief.

* * *

Tony flipped aimlessly through his textbook as the teacher droned on.

Bored, he shut the book and looked up.

"Professor?" The teacher stopped and turned to look at Tony. "Do you have any other Physics books? This one seems a little…out of date." Rhodey pushed his seat – which had been right next to Tony and in between Joey and Tristan – a little away from the raven-haired youth and leaned in the opposite direction.

* * *

Science was the worst for Joey, Tristan and Rhodey. Tony had insisted on showing the class something they wouldn't be coming close to covering until the end of the year and Tony's calling of something having a simultaneous positive and negative charge and him calling it a Stark Chart.

Finally the bell rang, signaling the end of class and the humiliation of the three boys.

"Do you think there is any way for you to go over that again?" the teacher asked from his place on a lab table.

* * *

"So what do we have now?" Tony asked as he and his guy friends walked down the hall. "This is kinda fun."

"Well, I've got English Lit," Rhodey said. "Joey's got P.E. with Tristan and you've got a free period. So just hang out, relax." The bell rang, giving a warning to all the students that class would be starting in a minute. "Check out the rooftop, a bunch of us have lunch up there. And we'll pick ya up after class!"

"Yea…Okay! See ya guys!" Tony called. In seconds he realized he was standing in the middle of a barren hallway. Right at that time, the very last thing Tony wanted was to be left alone, even if there were complete strangers. With a sigh, he rubbed his chest as he headed up to the roof to wait for Rhodey and the others, not noticing Serenity following him.

* * *

Tony stared out at New York, listening to the daily chorus of honking horns and running subways and trains mixed with the occasional airplane or news helicopter flying overhead. Tony's eyes locked on the S of his father's company building, standing out like a beautiful black blemish on a white surface.

Against his will, tears began pricking the back of his eyes, making him close them and unwanted memories to rise to the surface of his mind.

* * *

**_Flashback _**

_The plane lay in smoking heaps strewn about the crash site. Black smoke billowed from the ruins. The only sign of light was from the red metal glove covering Tony's arm to his elbow as his body lay motionless on the ground, covered in his own blood with wide tears in his clothes and scrapes and bruises covering his face and nearly every inch of visible skin. _

_The glove made a high-pitched ringing sound as it shot electricity into Tony's system, making his body arch off the ground and slump into a sitting position as he struggled to bring air into his damaged chest. Everywhere on that place hurt, his heart the most. His vision swam with black spots and haze nearly blinding him as he crawled to the black carrying case in which was the project he'd wanted to show his father. _

_Tony threw himself over the top of it and placed the hand not covered with the glove on the large gold button on the front, making it open. He reached in and pulled on the mask, the gold part covering his face completely._

_"Ac…tivation code," he wheezed."Stark…Zero 2."Instantly the mask's inside went from pitch black to a computer showing of his environment. _

_"Stark exosuit activated. Scanning. Alert: Medical systems detect extensive damage to user's heart and chest. Treatment in progress," the computer said as Tony's pupils began dilating, getting bigger and smaller as if they were trembling._

_"Navigation systems…engage autopilot…Take me…Take me to Rhodey." _

* * *

That was the last thing Tony could remember before everything went dark.

A hand rested itself on Tony's shoulder.

"Tony?" The raven-haired boy snapped his eyes open and looked at the auburn-haired girl who'd managed to sneak up on him.

"Renie," he said softly. "What are you doing here?"

"Same as you I suppose. I had a free period and came up here. I noticed you looked upset so I decided to check up on you."

"Thanks Serenity." She smiled in response.

"What are you looking at anyway?"

"Where his dad used to work I believe." The two turned to see Pepper Potts sitting on the small tower on top of the school, munching on a sandwich.

"What?" Tony asked.

"You're Tony Stark? I mean, Anthony Edward Stark. You worked there too, since you never went to school before. Privately tutored after your mom's…" She trailed off and took another bite of her sandwich as the topic had just gotten to something very touchy. "You have to stay with the Rhodes family, they're your legal guardians now and you went missing for a week after the plane crash. How do you survive a plane crash anyway?" Tony shook his head as Pepper had asked all of her questions rather quickly.

"Uh…J-Just lucky I guess," Tony replied. Pepper's eyes went from Tony to Serenity.

"And you're Serenity Wheeler. Sister of Joseph Wheeler the second-place in Duelist Kingdom, 4th place in Battle City, only real non-placement was in the Kaibaland Tournament. You had a disease from birth that caused you to have a reduced amount of liquid in your eyes and you brother used the three million dollar prize from Duelist Kingdom to pay for your operation, and help your mom to pay off her student loans, the loan she had for the downpayment on your operation and then she gained custody of your brother and he and his friend now live with you and your mom at her mentor's house, with the Rhodes who are also your legal guardians if anything causes a premature death for your mother before your brother turns eighteen. If he is a legal adult when that happens, you go into his custody right?" Serenity glanced at Tony before nodding politely to Pepper.

"Yes. Yes, that's correct," she said with a smile.

"How do you know all this anyway?" Tony asked. Pepper looked around, making sure the three of them were alone. Thankfully, no one else was on the roof. Still, Pepper put a hand on the side of her face as if someone could see her from the roof opposite and see what she was saying.

"My dad's on the FBI taskforce that's looking into Obadiah Stane after your dad's… you know 'accident,'" she said with air quotes around accident. "He had the most to gain from your dad's death after all." Tony's eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat in a silent gasp. "Hi. I'm Pepper Potts by the way. Your friends Joey, Tristan and Rhodey already know me," Pepper finished as she hopped off the tiny tower she was on.

* * *

Serenity sighed as she took a seat on the bus. If she leaned against the window and craned her neck a bit, she could almost see Tony's red t-shirt through the crowd of people. The boy was running as if being chased by demons. Rhodey was going after him to make sure he'd get home safely.

_"Tony started acting really weird after what Pepper said today. But just because someone has the most to gain from someone else's death doesn't mean they were behind it. Oh, I hope Tony doesn't try anything stupid or rash."_

"Serenity?" The sound of her brother's voice next to her, brought her out of her thoughts. She snapped her head off the glass and looked at the two boys who'd gotten on the bus with her.

"Yes Joey?"

"I wanna talk to ya about why you were so upset dis morning when you came out of Stark Tower." Serenity shifted in her seat.

"I was just being paranoid guys…I'm fine, really." Tristan shook his head.

"Serenity, did I ever tell you I have an older sister?" Serenity shook her head. "Well, thanks to her I understand the difference between when a girl's really alright or when she's lying. And you're lying Serenity."

"You can trust us Renie. We're not gonna do anythin' bad. I'm your brother and it's my job to protect ya." Serenity's eyes darted around the bus, purposely trying to avoid her brother's brown gaze. Her eyes caught on a girl with long black hair, blue jeans and a black t-shirt.

"Serenity. Hello? Earth to Serenity," Tristan said as he waved a hand in front of her face, making the auburn-haired girl jump somewhat.

"Come on Renie. We just wanna help ya out, okay?" Serenity sighed.

"You guys aren't going to let it go unless I talk are you?" Tristan and Joey shook their heads. "I told you, I was paranoid. End of story."

"No amount of paranoia should make a girl start bawling when she comes out of a building the way you did," Tristan pointed out.

"Now start tellin' de truth Serenity," Joey said. "I could probably get de story outta Tony but I don't think he wouldn't be biased about it." Serenity sighed again.

"Fine. Like I said, it was probably just me being paranoid. But when he was talking to Tony, he seemed cold and business-like."

"So he was like Kaiba" Tristan said.

"Maybe, in more of a dark, hateful way," Serenity agreed. "But when he offered me a job as his personal assistant…he seemed to get…I don't know…Primal I guess." Joey's grip on the bar he was holding tightened until his knuckles were white and his jaw was the same.

"Primal?" Tristan asked. Joey grabbed hold of his friend's jacket and yanked him closer.

"Our dad would talk to our mom like dat when he wanted…You know, _it._ He wasn't too subtle about it either and he wasn't afraid to talk about it in front of Serenity and me." Tristan's eyes widened a bit and he looked over at Serenity, whose face was buried in her hands and her shoulders were beginning to tremble.

Tristan and Joey started biting their lips and looking around the bus to find something else to talk about. Joey's eyes landed on Sarah a few seats up.

_"Oh crap! If Serenity cries, Sarah'll probably think Tristan and I are real jerks! And worse, she'll think I'm a jerk!" _Joey turned back to Serenity, mouth open to try and cheer her up when he froze. Serenity was leaning into Tristan, giggling as she looked at something in his wallet.

"Oh! He's so cute! It's no surprise he's your nephew!" she cooed as she looked at the picture, not paying any attention to the fact that Tristan's face was beet red due to their proximity.

* * *

Rhodey panted as he tried to keep up with Tony as they ran through the grounds that the Rhodes lived on.

"Tony! Will you wait up?!" Tony didn't listen and kept running. "Wait! Where are you going?" Rhodey asked as he followed the boy into a building.

Rhodey looked around. The interior really showed that the place hadn't been touched in a while. Tony's footprints were evident in the thick dust on the floor. Most of the metal in the building was rusted and parts of the roof were missing. The ground floor lead out a little ways before looking out onto another area about twice the height of the original floor and about five times as big.

The ground floor was separated from this room with a few metal beams instead of a wall and the only décor were a few large airplane seats that looked like they were from a Stark International jet.

"I've never been in this wing before," Rhodey panted as he came down the stairs that lead to the lower level where Tony was standing in front of a large piece of semi-rusted metal that almost looked like two joined by iron sheets in the middle with an odd door on the front. "My parents maintained this compound for your dad but…they never let me in." Tony didn't respond to his friend. "Tony?"

The raven-haired boy pressed a few buttons and the middle part of the metal lifted. Tony entered without a word and Rhodey following a little slower. He almost had to bend over to fit into the original opening.

"This is the lab you've been _fixing up_?" Rhodey asked as he entered the room. A large wheel-looking device was placed on the far left side of the room, a black metal container big enough for a body in the middle of the far wall and Tony was leaning against a computer that took up the whole right side of the room. The metal container was set on two iron posts leading up to a rotating part of the room with six black doors labeled with their own number. _"If this is fixed up what did it look like before?" _Rhodey wondered.

"Yep," Tony said with a smirk, his eyes shining a bit with pride at his creation. Rhodey looked around a little more before shaking his head and heading towards his friend, trying to shake off his feeling of awe at the lab.

"Okay. T-Tony, you have take everything Pepper says with a grain of salt man. She's a bit on the crazy side but-"

"Crazy or not, I think she's right," Tony said as he pressed a button on the computer. The rotator moved so the number four was behind the black container that had gone up. A loud hiss and a swoosh later, the box was in front of the boys. A few mechanical whirring noises and the front folded up, revealing the red and gold armor Tony had created. "And I know how I can find out the truth," he said as he walked towards the armor, Rhodey following.

"So what are ya gonna do with this? Beat Stane up?" Tony looked at Rhodey, his eyes like stone.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm gonna do. I'm going to beat the truth out of him," Tony said, his voice not faltering even once. Rhodey looked over at Tony.

"Really?" he asked, a grin starting to grow on his face.

"No not really," Tony chuckled somewhat. "The armor has surveillance systems on board. I can use them to spy on Stane and see if I can find out anything." Tony looked back at the armor before peering at Rhodey in the corner of his eye. "Sucker," he joked.

Rhodey grabbed onto Tony's arm and both of them began chuckling as they started wrestling a little before a buzzing noise started and Tony began gasping for air.

"Tony! I-I'm sorry. A-Are you okay?" Rhodey asked as he placed a hand on his friend's back. _"What was I thinking?! He's not supposed to be doing that much with his body still getting used to his implant!" _Tony massaged the skin around his implant as his breath began to return.

"Yea, I'm fine," he said as he looked at his watch. "It's just a reminder function. I have to recharge in an hour or so," Tony explained as he pressed a red button on the back of his watch, turning off the reminder.

"This is a bad idea Tony," Rhodey said. "For about a billion reasons: You're still hurt. If you don't recharge the implant in your heart, it's all over," Rhodey continued as Tony started grabbing pieces of the gauntlet and putting them on his arm. _"That implant's the only thing keeping him alive right now and it needs recharging practically every day. He needs to be careful now. And anyway, he's hurt. We can't be roughhousing like we did when we were little."_

"I'm fine mom," Tony said, trying to get Rhodey off his back. _"I'm not a baby Rhodey. I'm still the same old me just…with an implant. Can't you at least seem happy that I'm alive and know what to do for my implant and know how to handle myself. The implant doesn't change who I am." _

"Fine except for an _implant _in your _heart_! If you exert yourself in the armor, or the armor loses power or…or if you're hit by lightning. I don't know what! But your heart will give out!"

"I've got to do this Rhodey, for my dad," Tony said, his voice becoming firmer, not allowing any argument to sway his decision. "I couldn't save him but I can stop Stane. I can save everything my dad built." Tony's grip tightened on the gauntlet now covering his arm to the elbow.

* * *

Tony slipped into the rest of the armor, pieces of joints coming together with sharp clicks as it slid into place until all of Tony's body was covered in the metal.

The black box's top folded down before shooting up a long metal chute and being released. Tony's feet glowed as the repulsors activated, sending him into the air. He burst out of the chute and into the clear skies.

"Yahoo!" Tony yelled into the mask.

* * *

Rhodey pulled his headphones on s his computer started up the program Tony was sending through the armor.

"Hello? Can ya hear me? Tony?"

_"Rhodey, you have got to try this!" _Tony said through the computer that was now showing what Tony saw as he flew through the city.

* * *

"Are you getting my feed?" Tony asked just seconds before his shoulder slammed into a building, sending him spinning for a second before he regained his place in the sky.

"_Not really. No."_ Tony laughed aloud.

"We're gonna need to update your system…And this is _incredible!_" Tony shouted as the armor began beeping as the croner of a building began closing in on Tony.

_"Uh, you know you're gonna hit that building right?" _

"Uh, yea…Uh. I should turn," Tony said, a twinge of nervousness lining his voice as he spoke and turned, only to crash into another building and be sent flying straight towards the road. Tony shoved his boots under him as the asphalt came closer. He barely missed the top of a cab and he swerved into the air as more cars came his way. "I'm okay! Okay. No problem. I never had the chance to actually, you know, _use _the suit before."

_"Uh-huh. You're not exactly brimming with confidence here," _Rhodey said over the intercom as Tony began to hover in front of his the window that used to show his dad's office.

"I'm hacking into the Stark mainframe through the satellite feed. Shouldn't be too hard, I designed half of it," Tony said as images began to flash in front of him in the armor. "I'm downloading all of Stane's records just prior to the jet crash."

_"Yea, I see them." _Rhodey said as a particular image caught Tony's eye.

"Wait. What? That unbelievable- He did it! Stane turned my dad's Earth Mover into a weapon! And my laser system!"

"_Tony! Tony! Are you seeing this? Stark security is receiving an alarm. There's a train that's gone out of control." _Tony shook his head.

"Hold on, Stane's sending out a live satellite transmission…Rhodey, I think he's trying to sell the Earth Movers."

_"Tony, something's wrong. The train is speeding up and it's been re-routed onto the private Stark tracks. It's going to crash into Stark Tower!" _

"Hang on I- WHAT?!" Tony looked down from the window and onto the tracks where a white train was coming in on the tracks. "There's hundreds of people in there." The computer in the armor zoomed in on the train and then to its location. "It'll hit the building's power generators. The entire building could-" Tony shot down towards the tracks. "I have to stop it!"

He gave a sharp turn at the last second so he was nearly riding the tracks himself.

"I can do this. I just have to switch the tracks right?" Tony asked as small parts of his armor came up to slow his flight.

_"You still have to slow it down! Let me see if I can find a map or something," _Rhodey said over the intercom as Tony's flight came to an end, leaving him running awkwardly on the tracks until he came to a skidding stop on the switch area.

"I'm connected to the city's mainframe. Department of transportation," Tony said as he looked at the unresponsive switches. "The track switches aren't responding? That's weird."

_"Tony. Where's the train?!" _Rhodey demanded. Tony looked from the switches to the oncoming train barreling at him.

"Oh nuts. Hang on! I'm accessing the track schematics on file!" An image of the track switch appeared in Tony's armor for him to see. A certain part near the top flashed red . Tony scanned the machine until he saw the part and blasted it with his repulsor, sending out a wave of sparks like a firework. "Got it!" he said as the lock clicked out of place. Tony pushed against the tracks as hard as he could until the tracks clicked into place on the opposite track.

Just seconds before the train passed. Tony leapt out of the way with a small yell of surprise.

"Crisis averted," Tony said, quite pleased with himself.

_"Dude, what did you do?!" _Rhodey yelled.

"I switched the train to a different track," Tony said, not exactly knowing why Rhodey seemed so mad at him.

"_That line only goes to Stark Tower! The track you switched it to…it's not finished yet! Instead of crashing into Stark Tower it's going to crash into the middle of the city!" _Tony felt his stomach drop as the sound of bus and car horns came from the end of the track.

"Oops."

* * *

Joey sighed loudly and rubbed his ear as the sound of all the horns around them was starting to give him a headache.

"Dang. I bet Rhodey and Tony are already at home," the blonde said. Tristan sighed in agreement.

"Speaking of Tony," the brunette said, "he seemed quite in a rush to get home. Do you think he's okay?"

"Maybe we could go somewhere with him to get his mind off this whole Stark International problem," Serenity suggested. The boys nodded their agreement. "Any ideas as to where we should go with him?" The boys shrugged as a loud screeching noise rang around them, muffling the horns in comparison. "What is that?"

* * *

Tony growled as he pushed both his and the armor's weight against the fast-moving train.

_"Medical alert in progress. Cardio implant is depleted. Switching to reserves." _

"_Tony, your heart has to be recharged. You have to stop!" _Rhodey said over the intercom in response to the computer's warning.

"I can't…Too many lives…Won't stop," Tony growled as he activated his repulsors in his boots. The metal door in his hands crumpled and Tony pitched forward into the car with a yelp of surprise. Tony's head hit the back of the car hard enough to leave a dent in the shape of his head and upper torso. "Nevermind," he muttered abandoning the idea of pushing it into stopping.

Tony kicked the door open that lead to the other car. He blasted the metal connecting the two cars until it broke from the heat. The car Tony was in zipped along the tracks as the other three cars came to a stop. He glanced out the door he'd come from to see the three wooden stop barricades coming up closer and the loud honking of cars becoming louder.

He leapt out the back and latched onto the car pulling as hard as he could with his repulsors on maximum trying to slow it down.

Barricade one broke into millions of splintered shards on contact with the train car.

Barricade two soon followed in a similar fashion.

Tony's mind was reeling. He was running out of time and the armor was running low on power. Rhodey's warning flashed through his mind. He shook his head to rid himself of the thought. More than his life was on stake in this.

Barricade three marked the end of the tracks, sending the car and Tony pitching forward into traffic.

High pitched screams of panic soon replaced the horns of cars as people began unloading themselves from cars, taxis and a bus.

Tony's eyes trained on a certain trio consisting of a blonde boy, a brunette boy and an auburn-haired girl directly under the car, just leaving the bus.

Tony released the train car and instead put himself under it as so to stop its descent. Everyone in the crowd gazed open-mouthed and some even began cheering as Tony gently set the train car down in the street where no one was standing.

He looked at the familiar trio and smiled to himself before taking off back into the skies.

* * *

Joey burst past his mother as he and Tristan ran through the house.

"Where's Tony and Rhodey?" Tristan asked.

"I saw them headed into one of the buildings. I think it was one of the closer ones. The one Tony spends so much time in."

"Thanks Mrs. Wheeler!" Tristan called as he and Joey ran out the back door and Serenity entered the front door.

"Mom! You won't believe this but today we were almost crushed by a train but some flying armored guy stopped the train! We gotta find Tony and tell him! Love ya!" the auburn-haired girl said as she followed her brother and his friend.

* * *

"_Charging in progress,"_ said the computer as Tony hooked a long silver cord to the implant in his chest. He'd only gone so far as to take off his mask, which Rhodey now held in his hands.

"Piece of cake," the raven-haired boy panted. Rhodey's face looked about ready to split in half with the grin he had on.

"It's already all over the news. About a thousand people have footage of you on their cell phones. They're calling you-"

"Guys!" Joey called as he skidded into the room followed by Tristan and Serenity. All three stopped and froze in place upon seeing Tony in the armor. Joey's jaw dropped and Serenity's hand covered her mouth as a gasp escaped her lips.

"You…Were…We thought…" Serenity said as her eyes scanned the red and gold armor.

"Dude! Do you have any idea what could've happened to ya?!" Joey demanded, his ears turning somewhat pink. "Ya could'a been crushed or…Did you run low on power?!"

"How can you be so reckless Tony? You have to be careful with your implant. It's dangerous for you to do things like that." Tony raised an armored hand for silence.

"Dude, what would your dad say if he saw you right now?!" Tristan demanded. All eyes went to the brunette for a second before to Tony. The raven-haired boy sighed.

"Well, my dad always wanted to use technology to help people. To save lives, and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be a hero for these people. And I'm going to save Stark International from itself. And maybe along the way I'll find out what happened to my dad." Joey sighed.

"Well, every hero needs a name," he said as he crossed his arms. "What were ya thinkin' of callin' yourself?" Tony smirked.

"Isn't it obvious? I was thinking Iron Man." Rhodey chuckled.

"Good, because that's what they're calling you already," he said.

* * *

Despite the cheering joy above the ground, deep below Chinatown a dark room made of jade echoed with the footsteps of a man dressed in the black attire of a ninja. The man bowed on the floor.

"Master, the plan failed. The train was stopped before it hit Stark Tower. We did not retrieve the ring." The man didn't look up as the sound of metal scraping on stone echoed in the room. He knew who was looking down on him.

The shadow of a large man in spiked, black armor appeared over the man. The helmet of the man had two large spikes like horns nearly as long as the man's arm.

"It will be the last failure in this life that you make. Nothing shall stand between the Mandarin and his destiny! I will retrieve the ring myself!" the man said as he raised an armored fist revealing a gold ring matching that which used to belong to Tony's father but instead had a purple stone instead of green.

* * *

**Phoenix: Whew! This is late in coming out! But it's finally done! YAY! Mandarin's scary. *Hides under blanket* Please review.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Phoenix: Hello readers! I am so pumped right now! Let's move to the reviews from both the last chapter and the one before.**

**To Autobot00001: Thank you for both your kind reviews. And I'll do my best. **

**To K5Rakitan: Thanks for your input. I truly appreciate your kind words.**

**To white pedal: Thank you and I hope you enjoy seeing more.**

**To SilverPedals1402: Thank you very much.**

**Cerberus: Is that all?**

**Phoenix: Yep. And I've got news. I'm going on vacation for a week soon with some cousins I never get to see, so I probably won't update. So, let's get cracking! Please review!**

**Iron Forged in Fire Part 2: Enter the Mandarin**

**By Sailor Phoenix1997**

Obadiah Stane leered at the hologram on his desk of Iron Man holding yesterday's runaway train's first car above his head, barely heeding the fact he was surrounded by a couple of Stark International's top scientists and advisers.

"They're calling him Iron Man. No one seems to know who or what he is or where he went. He disappeared after the incident," said an adviser. "It's all over the news."

"All over the news because he saved hundreds of lives by stopping that runaway train. Including everyone that was in this building," said another adviser.

"I don't care who he is or what he did. All I care about is what he's wearing," Stane said as he ghosted his hand over the hologram. "Imagine the possibilities. A flying weapons-capable suit of armor. It would revolutionize warfare and make us rich." He pointed at the scientists. "I want our top engineers working on this." The scientists looked wearily at each other before turning to Stane again.

"Mr. Stane. From what we've seen, the Iron Man armor is more advanced than anything we're working on."

"It's years, if not, decades ahead of current technology," said the second one. The comments of the two only served to infuriate Stane more.

"What am I even _paying _you for?!" he roared. _"Other than I have to pay you for whatever work it is you do for me." _An image of Serenity dressed in a white blouse and a short black skirt appeared in Stane's mind. He smiled that his imagination making the V-neck of the girl's shirt nearly match the angle at which she held open a manila folder. Stane took a deep breath, both calming himself and pushing the image back a little so he could focus. "Fine. Then we get the armor and reverse-engineer it."

"How are we supposed to find him?" asked the first advisor.

"Uh sir?' said one of the advisers. "I think I know where he is," he concluded, pointing out the office window. Stane whipped around and gasped silently at the red-and-gold armored man hovering outside his window with the arms crossed. For a moment, nothing happened.

"He's listening to us," Stane said quietly before returning his attention to Iron Man. "Tell me Iron Man, are you interested in making a lot of money?" Iron Man's fist clenched and pulled back, as if about to punch the window but he froze and two news helicopters came up behind him.

The cameras all pointed right at him with both the pilot and the reporter in the cockpit.

Iron Man turned off his boot repulsors for a second as so to fall quickly out of their eye before he reactivated them and took off down the street, both helicopters following him.

* * *

An advisor walked up behind Stane, both of them watching Iron Man fly away.

"Why would Iron Man come here?" the advisor asked.

"I don't know," Stane said in a low, growl-like voice before he set his hand on the glass so he covered his view of Iron Man. "But I want that armor, right now," he said as he clenched his fingers as if he could grab Iron Man's armor out of the air. _"And I also want that girl…Serenity Wheeler." _The image resurfaced at the top of Stane's mind and a feral grin spread across his face. _"I'll get you yet Serenity. Mark my words." _

* * *

Iron Man tried everything he could to rid himself of the copters following him, doing 90 degree turns at the last second, snaking through the air, nearly faking turns, everything but nothing could shake them.

"Okay," he muttered in his armor before looking directly at the camera of the copter next to him. "You wanna play? Let's go." His repulsors burst with light, thrusting Iron Man forward but not making him lose the choppers.

"Are you getting this?" asked the reporter to the cameraman, who nodded his response.

Iron Man made a sharp turn, his speed starting to make the choppers fall behind. He chuckled to himself.

"Too slow," he said before another helicopter appeared in front of him. "Whoa!" he yelled as he thrust his repulors forward and turned down how much power they had. He didn't crash into the helicopter thankfully, but he did land against it hard enough to make it teeter in the air.

He jumped off, snarling to himself as he hovered in the middle of the triangle of helicopters.

"**Are you nuts?! I could've flown right into you**!" he shouted from his armor into the radio frequencies of the helicopters. "**Stop chasing me! Somebody's going to get hurt**."

The pilots of all the stations blinked in surprise.

"He's hacked into our radio frequency!" one said. The reporter in the chopper decided to jump on the opportunity.

"Iron Man! Do you have a statement for the public?!" she asked quickly. Iron Man remained silent for a moment.

"**Yea, I've got boot jets and you don't**." With that, his repulsors shot him into the skies faster than any of the choppers could rise.

* * *

"You're stressin' me out Tony!" Rhodey scolded as Tony put his armor away and sipped on a breakfast drink.

"Try racing helicopters before breakfast. Now that's stressful," Tony said with a wink and another swig of his drink. Joey and Tristan's jaws dropped open and Serenity's eyes widened.

"Seriously man," Rhodey continued. "It's getting really hard to cover for you with my mom and Moira. I-" Rhodey froze, finally taking in Tony's words. His own eyes widened. "What?"

"Racing helicopters?" Joey said.

"Sounds cool!" Tristan agreed.

"Sounds dangerous to me. You could've flown right into someone. It's the same reasons why street-racing is illegal," Serenity scolded somewhat playfully.

"I told them to not try and cut me off while I'm flying Renie," Tony assured. "And I'm getting better at controlling the armor so flying won't be much of an issue anymore."

"We're not going to see you on the news again are we?" Rhodey asked. Tony pressed his lips into a thin line and placed a hand firmly on Rhodey's shoulder.

"Not if you don't watch it," he said, starting to chuckle as he and the group left the armory.

* * *

"This armor is seriously incredible, I think I've out-geniused myself!" Tony said, still giddy over his morning helicopter race. "You guys should take it out for a spin!"

"Sure, love to," Joey said. Tristan nodded his agreement.

"I'm not sure I would fit," Serenity said. "Besides, I'm a girl and the armor's built for a man. If you ever build armor for a girl, I'll consider a spin then."

"That's not the point!" Rhodey shouted. "The point is I- You can't-" Tony smirked at the others, knowing Rhodey wouldn't be able to find a reason not to try. "That's just- Maybe…" the dark-skinned teen finally said, a spark of interest lighting up his dark brown eyes. Joey shook his head.

"Just like Yuge," the blond said with a sigh.

"Yea. Once that guy's mind was set on something, nothing was gonna stop him. Not you or me or even a psychopathic nutjob!" The boys started laughing a little before the group headed off to school.

* * *

A photo of Iron Man crinkled in the dark metal grasp of the Mandarin. His ninja-like dressed men were standing before him, nearly taking up the entire room. Only one was near him, bent low on his hands and knees beside the Mandarin's jade throne. Behind it were two large spheres with holes cut out of them, one smaller than the other and when able to see inside, one could see nothing but a sphere of what appeared to be fire.

"Master, the Iron Man was seen once more at the Stark International building."

"Stane believes this armored fool can prevent me from seizing the Makulan ring? That ring belongs to the Mandarin by right!" The Mandarin threw the picture away. It fluttered to the feet of a young teen with jet black hair and jade eyes behind gold-framed glasses, dressed in a black shirt with a gold dragon dancing across the front, gold pants and tennis shoes.

The boy stepped into the room.

"You should be careful Mandarin," he said, his voice smooth but with a chill to it like ice. "This Iron Man may not be working for Stane."

"Tong, leave us," the Madarin ordered. In seconds, the room was empty except for the boy and the Mandarin, who stood from his throne and advanced on the boy.

"Perhaps we should-" The Mandarin grabbed the boy's shoulder, his armored hand pushing against his throat as he lifted him off the ground.

"Be silent!" the armored man ordered as he threw the boy down. The black-haired teen shook his head and straightened his glasses as the Mandarin took off his helmet, revealing long silver hair and a Fu Man Shu moustache, both falling over his chest and down his back. "I will not be questioned in front of my men!" the old man shouted, Chinese accenting his English.

"Step-father! I meant no disrespect! I only meant to-"

"What you meant means nothing," the old man said, cutting off the boy's apology. "I am told you know call yourself Gene Khan. Pathetic." The boy, Gene, bowed his head. "You are weak. Corrupted by the West like your mother was. Question me again and you will join her." Gene's jaw clenched before he responded.

"My mother was a Khan. _I _am a Khan. You, Zhang, are not!" Gene shouted as he got to his feet. "And if you were smart, you'd start listening to me!" Zhang raised his hand bearing the purple-stoned ring.

"I wear the ring of the Mandarin, not you! You are a child. And worse a fool!" Gene's eyes narrowed dangerously. If looks could kill, Zhang would've died on the spot. "You will never know what true power is," the old man finished. Gene looked down at the Iron Man picture on the floor.

* * *

The whole school was whispering about Iron Man. Tony's chest puffed out in pride with every compliment. He high-fived his friends and nudged Serenity, who nudged right back. To everyone else, it was just a few friends but to the group, they were silently celebrating Iron Man's instant popularity among their classmates.

* * *

"Don't you two need to get your books?" Rhodey asked as he, Joey and Tristan collected their books from their lockers while Tony and Serenity watched on.

"I memorized them," Tony bragged.

"And I took mine home last night to get some practice," Serenity said.

"I hate you Tony," Rhodey joked.

"I wanna try to get back to Stark Tower, try to get more dirt on Stane. We know the Earth Movers are being weaponized. We just have to find a way to stop it," Tony whispered.

"It's a military experiment!" The whole group yelled in surprise and whirled around to face Pepper.

"Pepper!" Rhodey said in relief. "What are you talking about?"

"Iron Man! Isn't he great?" she said, trembling with excitement. "Anyway, my dad told me in strictest confidence that the FBI think Iron Man is part of a military experiment." She stopped long enough to sigh in a somewhat dream-like manner. "Red is my favorite color."

A close-by locker shut, revealing a large black-haired boy dressed in a green basketball jersey, matching shorts and white tennis shoes.

"Whoa, you got it all wrong Pepper," he said. "Everyone knows the truth about Iron Man." Joey sighed.

"Here it comes," he muttered.

"Yep," Tristan agreed as the boy stopped in front of them.

"He's…a robot. Some sorta advanced AI. From the future," the boy explained. Rhodey shook his head and sighed, rubbing his temple to keep a forming headache at bay.

"Do you even know what AI stand for?" he asked. The boy smiled.

"Yea I do…" He glanced from side to side. "Shut up." Still smiling, the boy walked off.

"Happy Hogan, not the next Einstein," Rhodey said with a sigh.

"I agree," said a new but familiar voice. The group turned more slowly this time to face Sarah, clutching some binders and a textbook to her chest. "I'm somewhat frightened of how things will turn out this year with him in all our classes, eh Joey? And isn't it awesome how you, Tristan, Rhodey, Tony, Pepper and myself are in all the same classes? Oh that's right, you and Tristan have P.E. when Rhodey's got English Lit and Tony has a free period."

"We talked with our counselors yesterday," Joey explained. "They agreed dat since Tony's goin' through a tough time, h should be in our classes with us. So our schedules got changed so they match perfectly. We all got free period with Tony now." Sarah smiled.

"That's great! That means we can spend our free period together. I have free period with Tony as well but I wasn't able to join him yesterday because I wanted to talk with one of my teachers about a subject I was concerned with. But it's all cleared up now."

"Good," The blonde smiled as he placed a hand on Serenity's shoulder. "By de way, dis is my little sister, Serenity."

"Hi," said the auburn-haired girl with a smile as she extended her hand.

"Hello Serenity, I'm Sarah," said the black-haired girl as she shook Serenity's hand. "So you're a freshman?" Serenity nodded. "Nervous much?"

"A bit," Serenity admitted, still smiling.

"Don't worry, people make up stories about high school to make it seem more scary than it really is. I'm sure you'll do great. And maybe next year we can share some classes." Serenity nodded.

"I hope so too," Serenity smiled.

"So what were you guys saying about collecting dirt on Obadiah Stane?" Pepper asked. One of Sarah's eyebrows went up.

"What's she talking about?" she asked Joey.

"I'll explain later," Joey said as the warning bell rang.

* * *

"That totally stinks!" Pepper exclaimed. "I mean you invent all this great stuff and now Stane's selling it off as weapons? That's horrible! Not illegal mind you but still, horrible." Sarah nodded her agreement.

"It's just unfortunate. If this keeps up, Stane might just soil the good name of Howard Star by the time you take over again in two years," Sarah said. "Kinda one of those only-child-wishing-they-had-older-sibling situations am I right?" Tony kept his gaze on the ground as his lips tightened into a thin line.

_"There _was _someone who could've taken custody of me and taken over Stark International if she hadn't run away three years ago!" _he thought furiously. He waited a moment before he replied to either of the girls. "I-"

"But if you invented all this stuff, you can un-invent it!" Pepper said.

"Un-invent?" Sarah said, looking at Serenity curiously. The auburn-haired girl shrugged.

"Here's what we do. Break into Stark International!" Everyone blinked. Pepper had just suggested it in the same tone she would if she suggested they go get some ice cream from the nearest parlor. "Tony can override the security, Joey, Tristan and I can take out the night guards, Sarah and Serenity can disarm the guards, Rhodey, you're on lookout while Tony finds everything he's invented and sets it to blow!"

"Really?' Tony said, excitement coating his voice. Pepper giggled before becoming serious again.

"No. We'd seriously go to jail. I just…wanted to be positive. There's really nothing you can do." Rhodey sighed.

"You can stop trying to cheer Tony up now Pepper. Thanks."

"Yea, 'cause it's barely helping," Tristan muttered, but Pepper wasn't listening.

"So, this super-laser thingy you invented, did it look like a giant metal monster…about ten stories tall?" Pepper asked. Curious by her question everyone looked in the same direction she was…

To be faced with the weaponized Earth Mover being carried by Stark helicopters. Everyone watched with dropped jaws as the airborne machine slowly moved over their heads and away from the city, towards the testing grounds of Stark International.

"Guess so," Pepper mumbled.

"Dudes," Joey said, over his moment of anxiety. "I smell trouble."

"Actually, that's me. Sorry about that," Tristan said. Sara and Pepper sniffed the air, only to instantly cover their noses and mouths with a hand and a yell. Serenity grimaced and covered her face. Tony and Rhodey did the same but started coughing.

"Dude!" Rhodey said. "Get some help for that!"

"Or just stop eating whatever it was that made that smell!" Tony agreed.

"Sorry guys," Tristan muttered.

* * *

Rhodey sighed as Happy Hogan continued to tap his large sneaker against the back of his chair as he kept moving his hands over his face.

Tony had asked to go to the restroom and their current teacher had a strict rule about only one person going at a time and unfortunately, Happy also had to go.

Pepper leaned over in her seat to be closer to Rhodey.

"Okay, so I know I just met Tony and all but he's been in the bathroom a really long time," she whispered.

"I noticed that too," Sarah said. "Does he have a bladder control problem or something?"

"He's coming back right?" Happy asked urgently. "Other people have to go too. Ya know?" He started bouncing in his seat.

"I'm sure he's going as fast as he can," Rhodey assured. _"Yea he's going as fast as he can alright. To the armory!" _

* * *

Tony watched in satisfaction as the armor clicked into place on his body and the armory shot him into the air as perfect as ever.

He shot clean over the school and headed straight towards the testing grounds where he knew the Earth Mover and Stane ought to be.

* * *

Gene Khan stepped close to the throne where his step-father usually sat but now the place was vacant.

A loud clacking of shoes on the floor alerted him to another presence as one of the Tong bowed before him.

"Master Khan! I have news! Where is the Mandarin?" the panting man asked urgently.

"The Mandarin doesn't wish to be disturbed. Give me your news and I'll tell him."

"I…Of course Master Gene," the man said as he rose from his position. "Our informant within Stark International reports Stane is on the move and he has the ring with him." Gene's eyes narrowed in thought.

"Good. That's good news. I'll let the Mandarin know." The man bowed and left quickly, leaving Gene standing by his step-father's throne.

* * *

The testing grounds were quiet. Five blockade barriers stood in a row in front of the Earth Mover.

The machine began to whirl as parts of it began to split, making it bigger and revealing lasers nearly everywhere. The lowest ones, near the legs, fired a laser about the width of a thick tree at one of the barriers, leaving a sizzling hole in the middle that still glowed from the heat.

The Earth Mover moved closer, blowing up the other four in rapid succession and a long tank that had been moved in while the first laser had been shot. The explosion covered the entire grounds in white light.

Stane and three other men were watching the spectacle from a building behind the Earth Mover. After the light died down, the Earth Mover went back to its original position.

"Well gentlemen?" Stane said.

"A very pretty light show Mr. Stane, but veaningless," said the man furthest from Stane. "Our enemies rarely stand still and vait to be destroyed."

"You promised a demonstration in combat conditions," said the second man.

"What would you like me to do? Stage an invasion? You've seen what it can do. I-"

"Sir?" called one of the guards.

"What?"

"Something is violating the testing ground airspace." Stane walked over to the guard to see what he was talking about. "It-it's Iron Man sir." Stane smiled wickedly.

"Gentlemen, phase 2 of the demonstration is about to begin."

* * *

Rhodey, Joey, Tristan and Serenity panted for air as they rushed into their house. Neither Moira nor Mrs. Rhodes was there, thankfully. The group made a bee-line for Rhodey's room. Said teen practically leapt into his desk chair and turned on the volume and a microphone so the group could talk to Tony.

"Tony. Tony are you there?" he asked.

_"Rhodey, Joey, Tristan, Serenity. I won't lie to you guys. I'm not in the bathroom," _Tony said over the intercom.

* * *

Tony shot past the building where Stane and his onlookers were, trying not to think about how many times he and his father had tested their inventions there and how he'd wanted to show what the Iron Man armor could do the day his father died.

"_Well no duh man!" _Tristan said over the intercom.

"_You went after the Earth Mover didn't you?" _Rhodey asked. Tony hesitated as he circled around the already-moving Earth Mover.

"Maybe. I'm hatching you guys into the testing ground's security system. See if you can see anything."

* * *

"Hang on, it's coming up now," Rhodey said as a few windows for security camera footage appeared on the desktop.

* * *

The computer in Tony's armor zoomed in on certain parts of the underside of the Earth Mover.

"I'm gonna check it out," Tony said.

_"No wait!" _Rhodey said.

"_They're watchin' ya man!" _Joey hovered in front of the Earth Mover and looked behind him, right at Stane.

"Fire!" the bald man shouted. Tony turned back to the Earth Mover, which fired one quick shot, knocking Tony out of the air and sending him sliding across the grounds. The Earth Mover followed, if somewhat slowly.

Tony pushed himself into standing up.

"Really?" he said before he looked up to see one of the Earth Mover's feet above him. He braced for impact and the Earth Mover send dust up in rolling clouds as it stepped down on him.

"_Tony!" _Serenity screamed over the intercom.

"I'm fine Renie," Tony growled as his repulsors activated, slowly pushing the foot of the Earth Mover upwards, just enough for him to get out from under it.

_"Tony, are you okay?" _Rhodey asked.

"It-it-it tried to kill me," Tony said, still somewhat in shock.

"_Get out of there! Now!" _Rhodey shouted.

_"There'll be other chances to get back at Stane and they won't be available if you get yourself killed!" _Tristan called.

"I – No. No Pepper was right. I invented those lasers and I can un-invent them, by blasting them apart. I can do this, guys. No problem." Tony shot back towards the Earth Mover as two more doors beneath him opened, letting out one more Earth Mover each. Tony turned back to the first Earth Mover as the laser began to hum in preparation to fire. "Okay, yea. That's a problem."

All three Movers shot a laser. Tony thrust his arms out, his gauntlets making a shield of electricity around him. Almost instantly, the armor began to sound an alarm.

_"Alert: Energy Shields critical." _

* * *

"Tony!" Rhodey yelled as he looked from one window to the other, only to see Tony's two gauntlets trying to hold up the shields. "Get out of there! Move!"

**_"_**_I can't! They're everywhere!" _Tony said through the intercom, not even trying to hide the panic in his voice. The alarm in the armor coming in crystal clear on the speakers.

"Cut your boot jets!" Joey yelled.

"Now!" Rhodey agreed.

* * *

Tony did as told, missing the lasers by a hair as he dropped and finding himself lucky only one of the Earth Movers shot at him as he fell and missed.

He activated them again and dodged three shots from another one of the Earth Movers.

"Whoa! Hey!" Tony shouted before he took off flying again. The Earth Movers continued to fire at Tony or trying to step on him.

_"One's tryin' to make ya land Tony!"_ Joey said.

_"Watch the one on your left!" _Tristan warned.

_"Tony!" _"Serenity screamed when a laser almost nicked his armor.

"They keep shooting at me!" Tony said in fear.

"_Well shoot back!" _Rhodey shouted. Tony ducked another laser.

"Oh! Right!" he said as he fired his own laser into the Earth Mover's canon. Another shot from the second one almost sent Tony spiraling out of the sky had his repulsors not reactivated. He fired one strong laser into the canon then up near the power source, dodged another laser from the third and sent his own barrage of lasers into it.

_"Watch de other one!" _Joey called.

_"Don't look around!" _Rhodey shouted.

* * *

"Ya got one at ten o'clock!" Tristan warned.

"To-"

"Hi!" Serenity nearly screamed at the sight of the person who'd cut her off. Tristan pressed the power button on the computer and unplugged the microphone.

"Don't you knock?!" Joey demanded.

"How did you get in here-" Rhodey started, only to be interrupted by Pepper.

"The front door was open. You guys totally took off after school and Tony never came back. Did he seriously cut school again? Ugh. He is going to get expelled. What are you guys doing and uh…Where's Tony?"

_Probably in a whole heap of trouble because you have the worst timing ever!" _Rhodey mentally screamed.

* * *

Tony was growing nervous. Rhodey, Joey, Tristan and Serenity had been his eyes and ears and now he wasn't getting anything from them.

"Uh…Guys?" Tony dodged a few more lasers and small shots. "A little help here?" One shot nicked the side of his boot, sending him spiraling for a few seconds until the repulsor activated again. He shot past the Earth Movers as fast as he could, hearing the dull _pop pop pop _of the shots being fired.

He flew as close to them as he dared, firing his lasers wherever he could until something caught his eye, making him stop.

"Oh no," he whispered. All the Earth Mover's energy cores didn't have a continuous stream of light, but lightning bolt-like streams. "Oh no, No, NO! You unbelievable IDIOTS! What did you DO!" Tony roared.

* * *

Alarms were going off in the building Stane and his onlookers were in.

"Uh sir? Mr. Stane? The laser array on the Alpha Earth Mover. The targeting systems are on automatic…But something's wrong," the guard said as a sketch-image of the Earth mover appeared, a few parts of it flashing red in sync with the alarm noises.

"So? Fix it." The scientist on hand bent over the computer.

"Mr. Stane, the laser array was designed by Tony Stark. The designs were…Well, we never truly understood all the aspects of it. It's overloading sir. And I don't know how to stop it. It's going to explode."

* * *

"Rhodey? Guys? Renie? Are any of you there? We've got a big problem here!" Tony said urgently as he shot lasers at the legs of the Earth Movers still firing at him, moving away when he saw the cores starting to have lightning rather than steady streams.

* * *

Stane snarled as the entire Earth Mover began to flash red.

"Shut it down!" he ordered. His guests turned.

"Mr. Stane, is there a problem?" asked f=the only man who had yet to speak.

"No, no problem. Everything is under control," Stane lied as a bright white light filled the room.

An instant later, the Mandarin stood in the room.

"What in the-"

"Stane," the Mandarin growled out.

* * *

"Pepper, we already told you," Rhodey said. "Tony's in the school lab. My computer crashed and he's trying to fix it remotely from there. He must've missed class because he lost track of time…"

"In the lab!" Serenity insisted. Pepper scowled lightly.

"He does that," Tristan continued.

"Really? That's funny because the lab's the first place I checked."

"Crazy huh?" Rhodey said.

"Ya must've just missed him," Joey insisted as Tristan looked at Rhodey's alarm clock.

"Oh! Look at the time!" he said as he took hold of Pepper's shoulders.

"Well, better get back to fixing this computer. Bye Pepper!" Rhodey said as he moved back to the computer as Tristan lead Pepper to the door.

"You guys are terrible liars, just so you know. Fine. But you guys do know I will eventually figure out whatever it is you guys are up to right?" Tristan tried to ignore her and shut the door but she had her arm against the object. "Tony has a lot on his mind right now doesn't he?"

"You've got no idea Pepper," Serenity said as she leaned over Rhodey's shoulder. Tristan tried shutting the door again when Pepper jumped back into the room.

"Oh, does Tony have a girlfriend?"

"PEPPER!" everyone shouted out of exasperation and finally, Tristan slammed the door shut.

* * *

Tony kept low to the ground as he shot lasers at the feet of the Earth Movers.

"RHODEY! SERENITY! JOEY! TRISTAN!" he yelled into the intercom.

_"Tony! We're back!" _Serenity said over the intercom.

_"And Pepper says hi," _Tristan informed.

"Great! But never mind that now," Tony said as he dodged more shots. "We've got a big problem. Things are about to go boom unless we find a way to shut down these laser arrays."

_"Boom?" _Serenity asked.

_"What do ya mean boom?" _Joey pressed.

"BOOM! As in all of upstate New York!" Tony nearly screamed as he began to hover in front of the Earth Movers.

_"Oh," _Tristan said. _"That kind of boom." _

* * *

The Mandarin advanced slowly on Stane. A pair of guards burst in through the doors. The Mandarin turned and clenched his ringed hand into a fist. He turned into white light again and appeared right in front of the guards, hitting one with the momentum of his speed on his gauntlet and grabbing the other by the face and throwing him against the wall. Both collapsed onto the floor in heaps. The man walked back to Stane.

"What do you want?" Stane demanded. The Mandarin grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground.

"The ring," he growled. Stane instantly grabbed for Howard Stark's ring and pulled it off as quickly as possible.

"Take it!" the man chocked out. "Just take it and go!" The Mandarin opened his other hand and Stane dropped the ring into it. The Mandarin's fingers wrapped around the green-stoned ring before throwing Stane away.

* * *

_"Tony, something's happening in the control room!" _Serenity said through the intercom. _"Someone else is there. And I don't think he was on the guestlist." _

"Hold on. I think I know what to do. I think I can stop the laser from going nuclear," Tony said.

_"How?" _Joey asked.

"I'll let you guys know when I'm done. Unless I blow up." Tony flew towards the laser array, ignoring his friends demanding an explanation through the intercom. He flew until he could look down and see the laser array inside the Earth Mover. "Here goes," he muttered as he plunged downward and put himself into the array that was supposed to have a steady stream but had lightning instead.

Tony yelled/groaned in the pain, his back arching to near breakage-point as another Earth Mover came closer.

_"Power system overload. Energy release required," _said the computer as the electricity finally stopped, letting Tony breathe. Slowly, he stood up, electricity coursing through his armor like the blood in his veins. His body curled in on itself for a moment before releasing the largest, longest laser yet out of his chest. The blue beam shot clean through the other Earth Mover, stopping it dead in its tracks of locomotion and near-nuclear-reaction. The laser reflected off the array and hit the other Earth Mover, also stopping it.

The testing grounds were covered in steaming Earth Mover pieces.

* * *

"Yes!" Rhodey yelled as he leapt out of his seat. Joey threw a fist into the air in celebration. Serenity squealed in excitement and threw her arms around Tristan's neck.

"He did it!" she giggled as Tristan spun them around a bit before they teetered and landing on Rhodey's bed.

"Sorry," Tristan said as he got off of the auburn-haired girl under him. Serenity grabbed a pillow and clutched it against her so it hid her reddening face.

"It's okay," she whispered.

"What's goin' on over dere?" Joey asked.

"Nothing!" Both parties said as they came off the bed and looked in the opposite direction of the other.

* * *

Tony looked back as he walked away and nodded to himself.

"Not too bad, if I do say so myself," he said proudly. That instant, the Mandarin appeared in white light, sending Tony back several feet like a ragdoll.

_"Tony? What was that? All your systems are down. Your heart implant's on back-up? Tony! Can you hear us? Tony if you can hear us, Rhodey's starting the reboot sequence!" _All of the voices of Tony's friends seemed to blend together as the Mandarin stepped over the heap of metal armor.

"The Iron Man. How…Unimpressive," the Mandarin growled.

"**Sorry, have we met**?" Tony asked.

"All who defy the Mandarin will be destroyed."

"**Good to know**." The Mandarin looked off to the side.

"Such arrogance. Let those be the last words you ever utter," the Mandarin said as the rings on his hand glinted in the sunlight.

_"Reboot complete." _Tony instantly sat up and shot a laser right into the Mandarin's chest, somehow not wounding him but sending him far enough that Tony could get up safely.

"**Where did you get those rings**?!" Iron Man demanded, pointing to the rings in question. The Mandarin's purple ring flashed and a white sphere of light began to envelope him and the surrounding area. Iron Man flew forward. "**WHO ARE YOU**?!" he roared.

The sphere dispersed, sending Iron Man flying into an Earth Mover and then it still had enough force to send both of them into the nearest wall.

_"Tony! Tony are you okay? TONY!" _Tony pushed himself out of the metal rubble. He felt exhausted.

"Yea, I'm here."

_"Oh, thank goodness, you're alive," _Serenity said. Tony lifted an iron fist and pumped it in the air a little.

"Hooray for me," he sighed.

"Iron Man!" Stane called as he walked towards the armored teen. "You don't want me as an enemy. I'll give you one last chance, work for me," Stane said as he stood before Iron Man.

"**Never**," replied the armored hero before taking off into the skies.

* * *

"You almost died man," Tristan said, patting Tony on the shoulder.

"Are ya kiddin' me Tristan? We all almost died because of Stane," Joey said.

"You saved billions of lives Tony. Think about this," Rhodey said. "This is serious."

"The man in black…The Mandarin," Tony muttered. "He had my father's Makulan ring. What he did…The energy he produced. I don't know how to explain it. My dad was right guys…These rings. What if they are some form of technology? And this Mandarin had another one." Tony gave his head a shake. "ON another note, where's Serenity?"

"She's back at the house," Rhodey said. "She looked kind of ticked when we left her."

* * *

"You should have listened to me when you had the chance," the Mandarin growled into the underground cell. A white light surrounded the helmet, revealing Gene Khan when it vanished. "Wouldn't you agree Zhang?" he taunted, looking down at the old Chinese man in the cell. "The rings aren't just a symbol of power, they _are _power. And I'm going to find them all!" Gene said as he clenched his armored fist, somewhat admiring the rings now on his fingers, not his step-father's.

* * *

**Phoenix: Wow! This only took me one day! WOW! Please review and I'll see you guys in a week or so.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Phoenix: Ugh! I just got back from a nice long vacation and my ex keeps trying to get back together with me! And not through meeting me face-to-face and talking about it. No, he thinks it's okay to try and get back together with me through text messages!**

**Cerberus: Some people.**

**Phoenix: I know! *Takes deep breath* I'm sorry. This isn't about me but I just had to get that off my chest. Now, let's get on with the reviews. **

**To Autobot00001: Thank you. I hope this is good enough.**

**To K5Rakitan: Thank you for your kind words.**

**Phoenix: That's everyone.**

**Cerberus: Seriously? Wow. That was quick.**

**Phoenix: On to the story!**

**Secrets and Lies**

**By Sailor Phoenix1997**

The morning in Chinatown was always refreshing. The scents of various food sneaking out from under doors and open windows of the opening restaurants. The sound of people merrily going about their business as the sun shone brightly on the streets.

However, under the streets was a very different story.

The Mandarin sat on his throne with a few Tong members bowing before him.

"The Maggia's incursions into your territory have increased, Master. They have long fought the Tong for control of the city's underground but this new aggression-"

"Is not unexpected," the Mandarin said as he raised his hand for silence. The first Tong member - this one standing out with gold padding on his chest and shoulders - looked up.

"Master?" he asked quietly.

"Of course the Maggia are stepping up their attacks. I've been making strikes directly against their leadership." The Tong members mutters among themselves for a moment.

"Master," said the second-in-command. "We have never-"

"We do now," the Mandarin said sharply. "Tell me, my servant, of the progress you've made in researching the Makulan Rings." The Tong member sighed quietly, knowing his next words could very well be his last.

"I…Mandarin, no one knew more information about the Rings than Howard Stark and ever since the plane crash…We have nothing." Each of the Tong members held their breath, waiting for their master to stretch his hand and use his first Ring to turn each of them into a pile of ash, as he had so many others before.

"Leave in shame…And be grateful for your lives," the Mandarin said. The Tong members all bowed so low their foreheads touched the floor before standing up and leaving the Mandarin to himself, each thankful to live another day.

The Mandarin stood after his men had left and walked a few steps from his throne, not nearly as pleased of the Ring not being used as his men.

"I am the last Khan, the heir to the Mandarin's Rings, so why won't you work?!" he shouted at the Rings on his fingers. A loud beeping noise, nearly like an alarm blared from the wall. The Mandarin sighed loudly before a flash of white light turned him back into Gene Khan with the two Makulan Rings still on his fingers.

Quickly, Gene pulled a small chain from under his collar off his neck and slid the Rings onto it before putting the necklace back on and tucking it back under his shirt as he started up the elevator to the antique shop Zhang owned.

"What?!" he demanded as he came around the corner…

Only to freeze in his steps at the sight of the trio in front of him. One stepped forward.

"Uh…Hi, my name's Tony Stark. These are my friends, Tristan Taylor and Serenity Wheeler," the first boy introduced. Gene stood rooted to the spot for a second, his eyes drifting over Tristan and Serenity, the auburn-haired girl looking especially steamed.

"Is there something I can help you all with?" Gene snapped. Serenity cocked an eyebrow at him before Tristan stepped in.

"We're here to speak to the owner of this place, Mr. Zhang I think. You work here?" Gene crossed his arms over his chest.

"Zhang's my step-father. I run this place when he can't."

Tony looked at a jade dragon not too far away from him.

"So you guys import Chinese art and antiquities to the US? Like, statues and relics ad stuff?" Tony asked.

"Yes," Gene snapped again. "_Stuff _is our specialty. Now what did you want to talk to my step-father about?"

"Wonderful attitude, this one," Serenity muttered under her breath so only Tristan could hear it. The brunette pressed his lips into a thin line to keep from laughing.

"Sorry," Tony said. "I was looking for information for one of my dad's projects: these ancient artifacts called the Makulan Rings."

"Makulan Rings?" Gene repeated, pretending to know nothing of the bits of gold and stone under his shirt.

"Yea. I've been going through all of my dad's notes on the Rings and Mr. Zhang's name came up in his diary," Tony said as he took his iPod out of his pocket. "I guess they talked a while back."

"Your dad keeps a…diary," Gene said calmly. Tony chuckled.

"Yea, he was kinda old school." Tony pressed a button on his iPod, showing the hard-light holograms and Howard's neat script and drawings. "I uh…Digitized it. It has everything he learned about the Rings but he wrote that he wanted to follow up with your step-dad and ask him a few things about Chinese history and similar artifacts," Tony explained as Gene looked the rotating images over.

"Zhang's out of the country on business and won't be back for a while. But if you want to leave me a copy of the diary, I'll be sure to get it to him." Tony smiled kindly.

"It's okay. Just let him know I'd like to talk to him as soon as possible," Tony said as he put his iPod away.

"Sure. Where can he find you?" Gene asked. Tony reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper the size of a business card and offered it to Gene.

"I wrote down my cell number. But I'm in school during the week." Gene accepted the paper and looked it over.

"Yea," Serenity said. "And if we don't get moving Anthony, we're going to be late!" Serenity's hissing tone earned her an odd glance from Tony.

"Do you go around here?" Gene asked, somewhat hesitantly.

"The Tomorrow Academy on the East side," Tony said.

"In fact, we all do," Tristan agreed.

"No kidding. That's where I'm enrolling," Gene said. Tony smiled.

"That's cool, we'll be classmates. Maybe we'll see you around," Tony said with a shrug as he, Tristan and Serenity left the shop. Gene looked back down at the phone number in his hand.

"Maybe."

* * *

"Tony! Slow down!" Tristan yelled as he and Serenity struggled to keep up with the running teen as he entered his lab.

"Why do we bother?" Serenity asked as they slowed down. "He never listens."

"Hey Rhodey! Joey! I went and saw-" Tony's sentence cut just as short as his running did so Tristan and Serenity ran into his back. The two looked up to see the Iron Man armor charging right at them.

"Move!" Tristan shouted as he tackled Serenity and Tony threw himself down as the armor leapt forward, repulsors activating so it ran head-first into the door, off the metal with a loud bang only to fly into the wall over the computer and fall in a boneless heap on the floor.

"What the heck?" Tristan asked as the armor slowly began to stand up, its back facing the trio. It turned its head back to Tony. The raven-haired teen backed away as quickly as he could until his back hit the wall. He raised in hand defensively just before the armor collapsed on him.

"Tony!" Serenity shrieked. A howl of laughter ripped through the room. Tristan, who still had Serenity pinned under him, looked over at the armor's remote control center – a large circle of metal with a leather chair and multiple screens showing different things for the armor. Rhodey was currently in the seat as the controls spun wildly in sync with the armor. Joey was laughing, curled up in a ball on the floor and holding his sides.

"Aw man Rhodey, you suck at dis!" Joey roared.

"Guys! GUYS!" Tony roared from under the armor. Rhodey immediately stopped spinning and looked over at where his friend was pinned down. Tony grunted as he tried to keep the armor from crushing him, getting his feet involved as well. "Rhodey! If you're mad at me, we could just talk it out!"

"Oh sorry man!" Rhodey said quickly. "I uh…I've been practicing the remote controls for the armor." Tony somewhat glared at him before returning to his problem.

"Ya need more practice," he commented. Tristan nodded his agreement before realizing his situation with Serenity as Joey's laughter began to calm itself.

"You okay Serenity?" The auburn-haired girl looked up, locking her grey-green eyes with Tristan's brown ones.

"Yes, I'm fine. Please get off me now," she said with a small smile. Almost instantly Tristan shoved himself to his feet before offering his hand to Serenity and helping her up, just as Joey stopped laughing and started wiping at the tears that had collected in his eyes.

"Aw man, dat was hysterical!" Joey commented. "Dang Rhodey, ya looked you were about ta hurl!"

* * *

"So the step-son he said this guys Zhang was out of the country. The contacts listed in my dad's notes are turning up a big zero," Tony explained as the group headed towards the school building.

"Yea Tony. How great of you to give a random stranger your number and so much information about Rings that almost killed you!" Serenity hissed. Tony and Tristan looked over at the auburn-haired girl, giving questioning looks at her while Joey gave her one of shock.

"She's got a point, you don't know who the Mandarin is or what the Rings are," Rhodey said.

"I was never great at research, I always just invented anything I needed." Joey turned to Tristan with a smirk.

"Ya know Tony, I hear scientists have invented these amazing things dat tell ya about ancient history."

"Yea," Rhodey said. "I've heard of that too. They're called books!" Tony raised his hand as if to slap Rhodey, who in turn raised his hand to defend himself, both of them relaxing after a second, leaving Serenity to be the only one not relaxed.

"Renie?" the blonde asked. "You okay?"

"Yea. I'm fine. It's just that we don't know who the Mandarin is or what the Rings can do! Look at what he did to Tony with only two! What if there's other Makulan Rings out there? If so, how many more are there? If there's more, just imagine what could happen the next time he and Tony cross paths." Tristan reached over and tapped Serenity's hand with his fingers, and she in turn latched onto his hand. "I'm not mad at you guys though." Tristan smiled and closed his fingers around Serenity's hand while Joey glared at the brunette.

* * *

Sarah pulled out her Math and Physics books from her locker before shutting the metal door and coming face-to-face with a familiar blonde.

"Oh! Joey!" she yelped, sending her books flying, one landing on top of the lockers where she couldn't reach. "Oh dear," she muttered as she reached up, only to push the book back more. Joey reached up and placed his hand on hers, scooting the book close enough for her to grab it from her height.

"Sorry about dat, didn't mean ta scare ya," Joey apologized as he handed her the book. Sarah pulled the book close to hide her reddening cheeks.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Morning Sarah!" Tristan said as he and Serenity walked up behind Joey with Tony and Rhodey behind them. Sara smiled kindly as she put down the books to show her smile as her blush began to fade. But her smile wavered as she looked over Serenity.

"Serenity…Are you alright? You look upset." Serenity set her shoulders and pulled her hand away from Tristan's before turning to Tony and grabbing him by the ear and pulling him down the hall.

"Ow! Ow! OW! OW! SERENITY! WHAT"S WRONG WITH YOU?!" Tony asked as he tried to release his ear from Serenity's fingernails.

Neither of them noticed a young woman watching them from behind a door. With a sigh, she shook her head and opened the door. She had pale white skin and silver-white hair and blue eyes. Her hair was pulled back in a braid and wrapped around itself to make a bun. She was dressed in a somewhat dark sky-blue business-like suit with a matching skirt and black shoes. Silver eagle studs with tiny sapphire eyes adorned her ears.

"Tony…What have you gotten yourself into?" she asked.

* * *

Serenity finally let go of Tony's ear and walked off a ways.

"What's your problem Serenity?! You could've torn my ear clean off!"

"And that just shows what a freshman girl who's never fought a day in her life can do to the great Iron Man!" Serenity spat as she turned to face him.

"Is that what this is about? Me being Iron Man? Serenity, the armor protects me. I'm fine."

"You were almost killed yesterday by that Mandarin guy! Your system shut down! Your heart implant went on back-up! You could've been killed!"

"Serenity, I'm going to be Iron Man because it's the right thing to do. Stane's is turning the good name of my father and my company to mud!"

"That job is for the police!" Serenity yelled back.

"The police have their limits Serenity!"

"And you don't?! Oh that's right. You're the great Anthony Edward Stark. You survived a plane crash all by yourself! You invented hundreds of things for the greater good! And now look at you! You're a teenager with a heart implant and that means you're more limited than other people!"

"Are you saying that I'm an invalid?!" Tony growled, his ears beginning to turn red.

"YES! That's what I'm saying! You need to stop this business before it gets you killed!"

"I will not let Stane ruin my family! Maybe if you'd lost Joey the way I lost my dad, you'd understand at least one thing in your life!" Tony roared. Serenity's eyes widened at his remark. Tony's fists were clenched tightly at his sides. Serenity's lips pressed themselves into a thin line. "Look, I have to get to class. If you still want to lecture someone about this, take a number. Rhodey's already on my back." With that, Tony turned away and headed back into the building.

Serenity stood rooted to the spot for a moment.

"Serenity?' The auburn-haired girl whirled around to see the white-haired woman approaching her from the door Tony had just disappeared into. "Is that your name?" Serenity nodded as she wiped at her eyes, which were beginning to sting with tears that she didn't want to shed. "Are you alright?" Serenity looked at the woman again who was now placing a hand on her shoulder and offering her a white lace handkerchief.

"Thank you," Serenity said as she took the cloth and dapped at her eyes. "I'll be fine." The woman crossed her arms over her chest and smirked a little.

"Have you fought with Tony like that before?" she asked. Serenity shook her head.

"No. This is the first time since I met him that he's ever exploded at me like that." The woman nodded and looked at the doorway. "Who are you anyway?" Serenity asked as she offered the handkerchief back. The woman shook her head and refused to take it.

"I'm the new student teacher." Serenity giggled after a moment.

"That doesn't tell me who you are," she chastised. The woman smiled.

"My name's Kisara Stark. I'm Tony's cousin." Serenity's giggles slowly stopped and she stared at Kisara.

"I…I didn't know Tony had any other family." Kisara sighed.

"I figured as much," she said glumly as she looked back to the door.

"Why?" Serenity asked. Kisara smiled a little as she glanced at Serenity.

"I was privately tutored my whole life. When I was sixteen, I wanted to attend a public school and I told my uncle that. After that, we got in an argument and like Tony just now, he exploded at me. I was upset and ran away the next morning. I've been away from home for a while now."

"How long?" Kisara's eyes became sad.

"Three years." Serenity kept quiet as Kisara took a few deep breaths. "Not a day goes by that I don't regret leaving my family. I always wanted to come back and apologize to my uncle but now, I'm too late." Then she looked back to Serenity with a soft smile. "Come on, first period will be starting soon.

* * *

"And that's why I wasn't very popular in the 8th grade. But no charges were filed so I guess everything turned out okay!" Pepper said as she and Rhodey took their seats, Joey and Tristan took theirs at the table next to the red-head and Sarah had the seat next to Happy right behind Joey and Tristan.

Just as they sat down, Tony came into the science room holding his backpack in one hand and a thick stack of books in his other arm. He spilled the books onto the table as he took his seat.

"What's with all the books?" Pepper asked.

"Yea, Tony. You normally don't do the whole book-thing," Sarah piped up.

"Yea, I went to this crazy place called uh…The uh…" Tony bit his lip, trying to remember the name of the place where he'd gotten the books.

"The library?" Rhodey suggested.

"That's the one! I'm doing research…Fun," Tony said sarcastically.

"Doesn't sound like fun," Joey said.

"Attention class!" said a new voice as it entered the room, flanked by two teenage boys. One was Gene Khan. The other was brunette with icy-blue eyes that stared at the crowd with just as much chill in their hues and hard as stone. He was dressed in a black turtleneck and slacks.

"Kaiba?" Tristan whispered.

"What's he doin' here?" Joey replied just as softly.

"You guys know him?" Sarah asked. Joey turned and nodded.

"He went to school with us in Domino. I'll explain more later," Joey whispered as Kisara picked up a clipboard with the seating chart on it.

"We've got two new students this morning. So welcome Gene Khan and Seto Kaiba." The students started whispering among themselves. Tony gave a sort of two-fingered salute in greeting to Gene. "Now then, Mr. Khan. There's a free seat by Happy Hogan and Sarah Milton. Mr. Kaiba, the last seat's by Joey Wheeler and Tristan Taylor." The whispers came to a stop as Kaiba and Gene moved towards their seats, but Kaiba stopped next ton Tony's table.

"Well, well, well. Look at how far the great Tony Stark has fallen. I do hope life…and Obadiah Stane are treating you well." Tony's teeth grit together tightly as Kaiba took his seat. Rhodey turned to Tony.

"Wait, that Khan kid. He's the one from the import place? And he's going to school here?"

"Cool huh?" Tony said, letting himself relax. Pepper kept glancing from one teen to the other.

"Kaiba, I know about. Gene Khan sounds familiar for some reason though." Gene sighed in his seat as Happy Hogan started to get excited about his new tablemate.

"Hey! New guy! I'm just gonna call you the Khan. Is that cool? Khan. KHAN!" he roared.

"Wonderful," Gene muttered under his breath. Kisara whirled around from the whiteboard where she'd been writing her name in neat, clear script.

"Mr. Hogan! I am sure that at this age you are aware that there is a time and place for everything! Your battle cries may be enjoyed and appreciated on the basketball court but in a classroom – especially when I'm teaching – is not the time nor place! As such, I trust all of you know how to act like adults rather than infants correct?" she said as she looked over the class. "Now, my name is Miss Stark and I'll be both your substitute as well as your student-teacher for the next two years. Yes, I'm Tony Stark's cousin but don't get me wrong. I will go just as hard on him as I would any of you. I don't know how your teacher runs things around here but I run a tighter railroad. You will receive one warning but that's it. Am I clear?" No one responded. "I trust you all understood me then. Now let's get to work."

* * *

As the students filed out towards their next class, all were whispering about Kisara's outburst at Happy Hogan. All but Tony at least.

Kisara watched her cousin leave as she packed her papers into a black briefcase.

"Miss Stark?" Kisara looked up to be met with Pepper's eyes.

"Oh. Patricia Potts correct?"

"I like being called Pepper but yea. That's me," Pepper said quite quickly. Kisara nodded. "So, when Kaiba was headed towards his seat, he said some stuff to Tony."

"Was it inappropriate?" Kisara asked.

"No. But I just wanted to know how Kaiba and Tony know each other." Kisara looked back at the papers in her case as her eyes became distant.

* * *

_The party thrown by the Schroders was in full swing. Waiters were walking through the crowd of wealthy people, carrying different foods and glasses of champagne and wine. Howard Stark stood talking to a kindly-looking woman while Tony hid behind his legs and twelve-year-old Kisara stood next to him in a little blue dress and her hair held back somewhat so long silver curls hung down her back, showing off the sliver-and-blue beads braided into her hair. _

_S__uddenly the woman's face became pale and she walked away as fast as she could as a man with salt-and-pepper hair dressed in a red suit and gold buttons walked up, dragging a young Seto Kaiba with him. The boy was dressed in a navy suit and lighter-colored tie. _

_"__Howard Stark. What a surprise to see you. You and your young ones," the man said. Howard narrowed his eyes. _

_"Good evening Gozaburo. And who is this young man?" Howard asked looking at the boy in question. _

_"My step-son, Seto." Seto bowed to Howard politely and shook the older man's hand before standing with clenched fists by his step-father. "Seto, why don't you ask Kisara to a dance?" Gozaburo asked as he pushed Seto towards the girl, nearly causing the boy to fall face-first into her forming chest, but he managed to right himself before bowing politely and extending his hand to Kisara. _

_"May I?" he asked. Kisara glanced at her uncle, who nodded gently. Kisara slid her hand into Seto's, letting him lead her onto the dance floor, not too far away from their guardians. Kisara followed Seto's lead through the waltz, which mostly they were silent for, until Kisara noticed something. _

_"How'd you get that bruise on your neck?" Kisara asked, jabbing her chin at it. Seto shifted his shoulders, hiding the offending mark from view. _

_"Nothing. Just was a little clumsy." Kisara's eyes narrowed somewhat before the two heard Gozaburo begin to talk. _

_"Well Howard, don't they seem to be getting along fine?" he asked. Kisara glanced at her uncle, who was glaring at Gozaburo. _

_"__If you have something to say Kaiba, just spit it out." Gozaburo's eyes narrowed as Seto twirled Kisara around. _

_"Well Howard, I've been thinking lately and I finally understood something. You were frightened of me weren't you?" Kisara turned back to Gozaburo to make a remark before Seto snapped her back into the dance with a low dip, his eyes on his step-father the whole time. "And I don't blame you for that. But…I think I found a solution best for both of us." Howard crossed his arms over his chest. "Perhaps our companies should merge. A contract would suffice if you wanted something temporary but perhaps a different sort of union between our heirs would do better for a permanent union." Howard, Kisara and Seto's eyes all widened at Gozaburo's proposal. _

_"Absolutely not!" Howard said. "My niece is not a bargaining chip for me. She'll make her own decisions when she's old enough but right now, she's under my guardianship and I will not be forcing her into such an ordeal!" Kisara turned back to Seto who gave her one more spin before bowing to her as the music came to an end. _

_"Shall we go?" Seto asked as he offered his elbow to the girl, which Kisara took and let Seto lead her back to Howard. __"Thank you for the dance Miss Stark. It was quite enjoyable," Seto said as he turned and vanished into the crowd._

* * *

"Miss Stark?" Kisara snapped back to Pepper, the memory vanishing into the back of her mind again.

"Tony and Kaiba both own multi-billion dollar companies. They met at parties and the like." Pepper nodded. "Well, I better get to my next class. The other substitute should be here in a minute or two."

"You have another class?" Kisara pulled out a schedule from her bag and handed it to Pepper, whose eyes widened considerably as she looked over the paper. "You're teaching all of my classes!" Kisara nodded as she put the paper back in her bag.

"I'm excited to continue teaching you Pepper."

* * *

"They seem kinda…" Rhodey paused as he set his books away in his locker and thought up the right words to describe Kaiba and Gene. "Like they're above all this. All smug and superior."

"Yea. Dey both have dat arrogant rich kid vibe goin' on," Joey commented as the group turned to Gene and Kaiba, who were thumbing through their books as Happy Hogan tried getting their attention.

"I'm sure I know something about that Gene Khan…I just don't remember what," Pepper said.

"Besides the fact that Khan was also the name of Ganges Khan?" Sarah asked. Tony chuckled and looked down at his watch.

"Sorry girls, no time to gossip. It's free period and research calls," he said as he walked off. "Hey Gene," he greeted as he passed the teen. Kaiba glared at him from the corner of his eye.

"Tony," Gene replied.

* * *

Tony rubbed at his temple to ease the headache that was beginning to form. He'd found a nice empty room and piled all his books next to a desk. He picked up one, a sheet of paper, a pencil and a Chinese-English translation book. He'd only started on the first page of the book he was working on and only had a few words translated but already he was close to having enough. With a sigh, he looked at the next character, referenced the translator book and wrote down a word before going on.

"Your last translation is incorrect." Tony snapped up and whirled around to face Gene, who was intently looking at a book of his own.

"What?" Gene looked up.

"The word you want is 'dread'." Tony looked at the translator book then back to the character he'd been working on.

"Right…You're totally right. Thanks Gene," Tony said as he changed the word but when he looked up, Gene had left the room, leaving Kaiba leaning in the doorway.

"You're only that far in that book? In the amount of time it's taken you to get all this Stark, I could've translated it all in my head, finished reading the book and written a report on it in both English and Chinese," he said as he left the room.

"No doubt you could Kaiba," Tony snarled as he returned to his work.

* * *

Tony sighed and looked down at his watch again. Pepper, Tristan and Serenity were all standing around him as the school day had ended but two members of their group were missing.

"Who stays behind to debate with their history teacher about _history_? I mean come on!" Tony complained.

"Rhodey loves history maybe he'll marry it," Pepper said.

"I bet he'd be happy," Serenity said as Gene and Kaiba passed.

"Hey there's Gene and Kaiba," Pepper said as she pointed to the two. Kaiba opened the door to a black limo on the other side of the street as Gene opened the door to a white one. Inside Kaiba's limo was a small boy with a wild mane of black hair, somewhat darker skin and a bit of dusty-purple to the blue color he shared with his brother's eyes.

"No way, Mokuba's here too," Tristan whispered.

"Oh, they've got limos and you don't," Pepper commented. "Jealous?" Tony rolled his eyes before Pepper clamped onto his shoulder. "You should come in two limos tomorrow!"

"Hey Gene!" Tony called as he ran over. His friends followed him. "Thanks again for your help earlier." Gene nodded.

"No problem." Tony took a deep breath as Gene tossed his backpack into the limo.

"And actually, I could use a lot more help." Kaiba chuckled. Gene glared at the brunette for a few seconds before returning his gaze to Tony.

"I'm really busy," he said as an excuse. A loud whistle-like noise filled the air, a noise that was familiar to both Tony and Kaiba.

"Look out!" Tony yelled as he yanked Gene back just as a missile hit his limo, blasting it to pieces. Kaiba yanked his brother out of the limo at the same time. The heat from the explosion was so intense, Kaiba's limo blew up as well.

A black truck swerved around the corner and came to a stop in front of the children. Men wearing white masks, black suits and matching hats holding guns jumped out of the truck and surrounded the group.

The last man to jump out wore orange and army-grey-green armor with a long orange spike coming off the top of his helmet and shoulder pads with small raised pieces on them. All the joints in his armor, as well as a few places on his helmet had blue circles, the largest – about the size of a sand dollar – was positioned at the connecting part of the horn and his helmet.

Tristan moved his arm to cover Serenity as Kaiba held his brother close to him. A loud buzzing noise filled the air as another man dressed in black and dark green armor with hints of yellow on his stomach, arms and under his eyes flew down before the group, standing next to the other armored man.

"Gene Khan," the second man said, pointing to the teen in question. "The Maggia would like a word with you about your step-father." Everyone looked at Gene, who stared at the men dumbfounded.

"Who are you people?" Tristan asked.

"Killer Shrike," said the second man before he climbed into the truck.

"Unicorn," said the first man as he followed suit. Serenity and Mokuba covered their mouths to hold back their laughter.

* * *

"Still not picking up?" Joey asked as he, Rhodey and Kisara made their way down the sidewalk, Rhodey with his cell phone to his ear. The boy shook his head.

"I'll leave a message…Tony, it's me and Joey. Where did you guys…" Rhodey's words faltered as the trio came to a collection of students staring at something across the street.

"What is all this?" Kisara asked as she and the boys wove through.

"What in the-" Rhodey said as all three stopped dead in their tracks. The gang members of the Maggia were shoving Pepper into their car and the red-head was putting up quite a fight.

"Tony!" Kisara yelled.

"Pepper!"

"Serenity!" Joey called. Pepper looked over.

"Rhodey! Joey! Help!" she screamed, Serenity's voice joining her as the Maggia members shoved Pepper into the van and slammed the door shut before the truck took off. Rhodey and Joey raced after it a little before the darker-skinned one came to a halt. He reached out and stopped Joey but the blond kept wanting to go on.

"Let go of me! Dey've got Serenity!"

"I know, we'll figure this out. Right now let's get back to the armory and see what we can do," Rhodey whispered.

"And pray tell, why did none of you call the police!" Kisara yelled at the other students before pulling out her own cell phone and doing the deed herself. Rhodey and Joey nodded in agreement before heading back towards the armory.

* * *

Pepper grunted as one of the Maggia members shoved her, none too gently, onto a crate where everyone else was sitting.

"Hey! Watch it! Oh you guys are in big trouble," Pepper said, just starting up with her lecture.

"Pepper," Tony ground out from behind clenched teeth.

"My dad, he's an FBI agent. You don't know who you're dealing with here."

"Pepper!" yelled Gene, Tony and Kaiba, making Serenity jump in surprise.

"What?" Pepper snapped.

"Let's not antagonize the armed thugs okay?" Tony whispered. Pepper looked around at the gang members stationed at practically every possible angle, then to the others. Mokuba was hiding behind his brother, clinging to his shirt like a lifeline. Serenity was bouncing somewhat as Tristan wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into his chest.

"What's wrong?" he whispered.

"I gotta go to the bathroom. I've been holding it in all day and when everyone yelled I peed a little."

"Why didn't you go when we were at school?"

"That didn't cross my mind at the time," she said as a light dusting of pink flushed her cheeks, showing her embarrassment. A light beeping noise caught the attention of the others as Tony started pressing buttons on his iPod.

"Give me that!" a Maggia member yelled as he snatched Tony's iPod away and started looking it over.

"It's just an MP3 player," Tony said.

"Kid," growled Killer Shrike as he flew down. "You better shut up and cooperate if you want to get out of this without suffering too much."

"You're supposed to say get out of this _alive_, nimrod. Get it right!" Pepper said. "And what kind of a name is Killer Shrike anyway?"

"You didn't completely answer our question back at the school," Kaiba said, his voice cold as ice. "Who are you people?"

"And what do you want from Gene?" Tony finished.

"Your buddy's dad is the head of the Tong. The Maggia's at war with the Tong. They're hitting our leaders so we're hitting back," Killer Shrike said as he pointed to Gene, who looked nearly ready to bite someone's head off. Pepper went closer to Gene.

"That's where I knew you from! The FBI suspected Shin Zhang was connected to the Chinese criminal underworld," she said.

"What?" said everyone else, surprised by her enthusiasm.

"That's awesome!" Pepper shrieked. Gene slid off his seat and walked off a ways but Pepper followed him.

"So how long's your father been a crime lord?" Gene snapped around.

"What? My _step_-father is a businessman. He's an importer, that's all. He works for museums, not criminals," Gene snapped before turning to Killer Shrike. "What do you want? Money? Because my step-father won't pay. This is the fifth time I've been kidnapped! He's more likely to sue you!"

"I hate kids," Unicorn muttered. Tony turned his attention from the villains to the man fiddling with his iPod.

"Come on Rhodey," he whispered.

* * *

"Come on. Come on," Joey snarled as Rhodey pounded on the computer's controls to lower the remote controls for the armor. Slowly, the ring of machinery lowered itself. Rhodey leapt into the remote controls for the armor.

"Computer, lock onto Tony's Pod signal and give me the coordinates." One of the screens to the side showed a map of New York's shoreline.

_"Sphere systems online. Searching…" _the computer said.

"Dis thing better work fast…Who knows what they're doin' to Serenity at dis point," Joey said under his breath.

* * *

Serenity flinched closer into Tristan's embrace as another bored-out-of-his-skull Maggia member flicked something at her. She couldn't tell if it was a pebble or a coin or anything but they always aimed for the higher regions of her thighs or her chest, and they nearly always hit.

Tristan wrapped his other arm around Serenity and glared at the offending gang member, who was pointing at Serenity and chuckling.

"Don't respond," came a cold voice. Tristan turned to Kaiba.

"What?"

"It's the response they love. It would probably be best to move your little girlfriend behind you if you don't want that stuff happening." Tristan nodded before his face turned red.

"Wh-Wha-What brought you to that conclusion?" Tristan hissed as he covered Serenity's ears.

"You're not together?" Kaiba looked the couple over. "Well then, this must be awkward." Pepper glared at the brunette before looking over at Serenity, who was crawling to hide behind Tristan.

"We should try to escape," she said. "Gene, you take the lead. Since your father's a violent criminal and all." Gene's shoulders stiffened as he forced a breath out his nose, making his nostrils flare.

"My _step_-father is not a CRIMINAL!" he roared.

"Gene!" Serenity said.

"Relax man," Tristan continued, having caught the Asian boy's attention.

"No one thinks your dad's a criminal," Tony assured. Gene's eyebrows furrowed together.

"Save for these criminals, the FBI, and probably everyone else in New York," Kaiba said. Gene forced long, slow breaths out of his lungs before he turned to the others.

"Okay…One, its _step_-father. He's not my dad. And two, he's no gangster!" he said sharply before turning to Pepper. "I know all about the FBI's investigation and they came up with _nothing! _They _dropped it_! Ya know why? Because he's not a CRIMINAL!" Gene roared, his eyes flashing with a dangerous fire.

"Gene! We believe you," Tony pressed.

"Everything will be okay," Serenity agreed. _"I hope."_

"Serenity's right," Tony said. "My Pod has a tracking device in it. The police, the FBI, the Marines, someone's going to come help us." Pepper and Serenity's faces lit up like Christmas trees.

"You're my hero Tony!" Pepper said as she cuddled as close as she could to Tony while holding his arm. "Oh I hope it's the Marines."

"Why do you have a-" Tony smirked at Gene.

"You think you're the only one who's ever been kidnapped?"

"Hey," Tony looked over at the Maggia member who was fiddling with his Pod. "Can you get the game on this?" The member asked as he held the Pod out. Tony grinned at the others before going over to the gang member.

"Dude, I can get anything on there. Music, TV, movies, you name it," he said as he took the Pod and opened it up, taking a small white earpiece out and slipped it behind his ear. "The Pod uses _remote control _to have my computer at home give me anything I _need _at _any location._"

* * *

"Gotya!" Rhodey said as a red dot appeared on the map. Joey heaved a sigh of relief and buried his face in his hands. "Whatever you need, coming up!" Joey sat down on the floor as the Iron Man armor shot up the tube.

_"Don' worry Serenity, you'll be home soon." _

"Now, let's see if I've gotten any better at driving this thing," Rhodey said. Joey's eyes widened and he immediately crab-walked away as Rhodey took control of the armor and started spinning like mad.

"I'd say…Nope," Joey breathed as he stood up.

* * *

"It gets cable too," Tony said cheerfully as the Maggia member fiddled more with his Pod. "I could-" A red blast in between the gang man and Tony made both jump back, the gang member dropping the Pod in the process.

After a couple of seconds, Tony lunged forward and picked up his Pod and was starting to check it over when Unicorn grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Sit down!" he roared as he threw Tony back to the others.

"Tony!" Serenity cried as the boy pushed himself up on a shaky arm and looked at his Pod. The center – a small blue dot with lighter marks making a smiley face – was cracked right down the middle.

"Well, this is a problem," he grumbled.

* * *

_"Error. Pod signal lost," _the computer said. Joey's throat constricted somewhat.

"Well, this is a problem," Rhodey said.

"A problem? Dat's all you can say?! A PROBLEM?!" Joey roared. Rhodey glared at the blonde. "Dose gang people have my baby sister! And all you can say is dat it's a problem?!"

"Calm down Joey, Serenity's with Tristan and Tony. They won't let anything happen to her."

* * *

Tony glanced from Killer Shrike to Unicorn then over to Serenity, who'd gone from bouncing to clenching her fists, pushing herself forward and back as well as biting her lip. He got up from his seat and walked to Serenity.

"Come on, I've got a plan," he said as he held out his hand. Serenity took hold and glanced back at Tristan as Tony lead her towards Killer Shrike and Unicorn. Tristan leapt up and followed her. "We have to go to the bathroom," Tony announced to the villains.

"I really, _really _gotta go," Serenity said as she bounced from foot to foot.

"Too bad!" Unicorn yelled.

"Um, you should trust him on this one," Pepper said as she came up from behind Tony and Serenity.

"I mean, he alone uses the bathroom a lot. I mean, seriously, all the time," Tristan said. Tony's cheeks became a faint shade of pink.

"There's no bathroom here kid," Killer Shrike said from his perch a couple crates up.

"What? There's one down that hall. I can see it from here," pepper said, pointing in the direction she was talking about, making both villains look. "See?" Killer Shrike turned to his co-worker.

"Unicorn, take the kids to the bathroom."

"You've got to be kidding," Unicorn breathed.

"Oh! I have to go too!" Pepper complained as she copied Serenity's hopping.

"Whatever just shut up!" Unicorn ordered as he followed the teens. Leaving the two Kaiba brothers alone with Gene, neither one paying any attention as Gene clutched at the area under his shirt where he hid the Rings.

The loud ringing of the phone on the table, snapped all of their attention to it as Killer Shrike answered.

"Shrike."

_"Zhang is not responding to our threats. We need to show him we are serious," _said a heavily accented voice on the other line. _"Eliminate the boy's friends." _Killer Shrike smiled wickedly.

"Yes, Count Nefaria," he said as he hung up the phone and turned to his captives. _"Doesn't even know he's got two Kaibas in his hands! Looks like a few extra million are going to line my pockets soon!" _

* * *

"Look, just shut up!" Unicorn complained as he and the teens continued on their way to the bathroom.

"Sorry," Tony said. "I'm just saying that much energy near your brain can't be too good for you. Do you get headaches?"

"I've got four right now!" Unicorn said, frustrated as he covered his eyes. Pepper looked back at the armored man.

"There's no way you're not going to jail after this…You know that right?" Pepper glanced down at Tony's hand, which was still clutching his Pod and working on it. She gasped to cover the beep it made as he pressed the buttons. "Or worse…Seriously, if the cops don't get you, the _Tong _will," she assured. Unicorn snarled as they neared the restroom door and a beep sounded in his ear.

"Unicorn," he snapped as he pressed on the receiver in his helmet. Tony placed a hand on Serenity's shoulder.

"Go on. It should be fine." The auburn-haired girl smiled at Tony as she turned the knob.

"It's locked," she whispered before resuming biting her lip.

"Don't worry Renie," Tony said as Unicorn turned away and he held up his repaired Pod. "We'll be out of here soon."

"Not soon enough," Serenity hissed.

* * *

_"Pod signal re-acquired," _the computer said as the red dot appeared on the map again. Joey breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness," he breathed.

"Don't worry so much Joey. Tony's got this handled," Rhodey said as he started up the controls again.

* * *

Pepper looked at the repaired Pod then back to Unicorn, who was still listening to the receiver in his helmet.

"All those times I said I wanted us to hang out, this isn't what I meant," Pepper said.

"Let me guess," Tony said. "You think this is better?" Pepper's face broke into a wide grin.

"Yea, way better!" she whispered, hands clasped in front of her as she trembled with excitement.

"How is this any better than anything you had an idea for?" Serenity hissed as she kept bouncing and looking around for another bathroom. Unfortunately, there wasn't one.

_"Orders came in from Nefaria: Eliminate the kids," _Killer Shrike said over the intercom. Unicorn smiled wickedly.

"Punks," he growled as he turned around. "Today is my lucky day."

* * *

"Hurting the others will gain the Maggia nothing," Gene said. Killer Shrike and another gang member turned to face him.

"You'd best stop worrying about them and start worrying about yourself," Shrike warned as he set down the phone. Gene chuckled as Kaiba put his arms down in such a way that Mokuba was somewhat hidden.

"That's funny, because I was about to say the same thing to you," Gene said slowly and deliberately. Killer Shrike lunged forward and grabbed Gene by the collarbone and pushed his face close to Gene's.

"Shut your mouth kid, or you're next!" Shrike snarled.

_"If you're smart Khan, shut up!" _Kaiba thought. He didn't notice Gene about to slide a Ring onto his hand.

A streak of red and a loud crash snapped all attentions from Shrike and Gene as well as catching the attention of Unicorn. Tony smirked at the opportunity and climbed onto a large crate as his captor was distracted. Tristan moved Serenity behind him.

"What was-" Unicorn didn't get the chance to finish as Tony leapt towards him from his crate and kicked him square in the chest, knocking him into another crate and sending Tony rolling on the ground.

"Ow," he complained loudly.

"Tony!" Serenity called as she surged towards the boy with Pepper. Tony smiled at his friends but couldn't help the fact that he noticed a puddle near where Tristan was standing.

"Come on!" Pepper said as she pulled him up. Tristan grabbed onto Serenity and followed the other two, holding her hand tightly in his. None of them noticed Unicorn getting up and snarling after them. They did notice the gunshots being fired at the Iron Man armor as it moved from the ruins it had created, walking through the bullets that sparked off the armor as if they were raindrops.

* * *

Rhodey scanned through the masked faces of the gang members as they continued to shoot as well as the Kaiba brothers and Gene on the floor, Kaiba covering Mokuba with his own body to protect him from the guns.

"Come on. Tony where are you?" he asked under his breath. Joey was also looking through to see if he could find Serenity.

"_Come on sis…Please be alright." _The four appeared behind a stack of crates.

"There!" Rhodey said. Joey breathed a low sigh at the sight of his sister behind Tristan.

* * *

The armor moved forward, towards its creator. But a few blasts from Killer Shrike's gauntlet, sent it flying back into the wooden debris it had created, sending black smoke everywhere. Gene looked down at the green ring in his hand.

"Gene!" Tony yelled as he ran up to the Asian. "Take the others and get them out of here!"

"But what about you?!" Pepper asked.

"Pepper please," Serenity said as she leaned over enough to cover the stain on her pants. Tristan pulled his green jacket off and handed it to Serenity, who quickly tied it around her waist to hide the embarrassing sight.

Suddenly, the Iron Man armor blasted out of the wooden debris. Killer Shrike leapt out of the way as the armor grabbed hold of Tony and flew clean into another stack of wooden crates. Smoke billowed out from the large stack as Unicorn appeared at the site.

"Was…Was that Iron Man?" he asked Killer Shrike. The other armored man looked down from his perch on a support beam for the roof. As if on cue, a huge crate flew out from the pile. Tristan threw himself over Serenity as the crate whizzed just over their heads to smash to pieces against the wall.

Everyone snapped their attention back to the pile as Iron Man appeared from the debris and smoke.

"**Attention criminals!" **he said as he flipped over in the air before landing in a crouched position. **"You're toast." **The Maggia members looked at one another for a moment before shooting their guns at him again.

_"Nice. You really put the fear into 'em." _Rhodey said through the intercom.

_"Is Serenity okay?" _Joey demanded.

"She's fine Joey. Just had a little accident is all," Tony replied.

_"WHAT ACCIDENT?! What happened?"_

"I'll let her explain when we get home. Right now, I've got some Maggia butt to kick."

_"Tony, make sure Serenity, Tristan, Pepper and Mokuba get outside. Oh and Khan too," _Joey said.

"What about Kaiba?"

_"Can't he be left to the Maggia? Let him be their problem."_

"Sounds tempting…But what about his brother?" Joey became silent over the intercom. "Thought as much." Tony turned his attention back to the Maggia members shooting at him.

Iron Man activated his repulsors and shot two long blasts at the crates the members were standing on. He didn't want to kill, only knock out at the very most. The loud buzzing of Killer Shrike's armor caught his attention as the flying man shot at him, which Iron Man easily avoided before taking off into the air after Killer Shrike, chasing him around the wearhouse, weaving through support beams and avoiding Unicorn's red beam from the ground as well as Killer Shrike's own short blasts.

The eyes of the kidnapped teens were kept on Iron Man as they hid behind a low row of crates. Pepper leaned forward a little and slipped off the box she was on with a short yelp, landing on her head. Gene rolled his eyes and looked over at the wearhouse door, where a gang member was abandoning his post to involve himself in the fight as well.

Gene tapped Kaiba and Tristan's shoulders and nodded towards the door. Tristan grabbed hold of Serenity's hand and Kaiba grabbed his own brother and all three older boys surged towards the door. Gene stopped a few steps into it and looked back to see the Maggia member that had run from his post at the door closing in on Pepper.

The red-head snapped around when a knee pressed into her back. The Maggia member chuckled lightly as he looked down and pressed his finger on the trigger of his gun. Pepper almost screamed as the gang member grabbed her arm. With a loud, resounding bang, the gang member fell limp over Pepper's legs, showing Gene standing in his place, holding an iron bar in his hand.

"Come on, we have to get out of here," he said as he extended his other hand to Pepper, who took it with a smile and let Gene help her up. Gene then dropped the bar on the man's head before releasing Pepper's hand and leading her out the door.

"Do you think Ir…Tony is going to be okay here?" Serenity asked Tristan as he pulled her outside.

"I think so. Iron Man probably has him well hidden," Tristan assured before looking up at his armored friend as he chased Killer Shrike onto a support beam. "Good luck man," he whispered before leaving the wearhouse.

Iron Man sighed a breath of relief as he saw his friends leave the wearhouse.

"One less thing to worry about," he said into the comlink as he turned to face Killer Shrike, unaware that Unicorn was coming up towards him until he grabbed hold of his boot and yanked him down into another crate. Unicorn grabbed the armored man by the helmet and pulled him up so they were face-to-face before blasting him with the beam from his horn, sending Iron Man flying across the wearhouse until he came to a crash landing on another wooden crate.

_"Tony!" _Joey called.

"_You okay man?" _Rhodey pressed as Tony slid off the crate.

"Yea," he groaned as he rubbed his head and neck. "It's just…They're a little different than fighting robots." A pair of armored feet came into his line of vision. "Uh-oh." Iron Man looked up just as Unicorn blasted him again, this time into a wall, leaving him dazed.

Iron Man gave his head a shake just before Unicorn blasted him again, holding the red-and-gold hero to the wall as he advanced on him. Once the blast stopped, Unicorn grabbed Iron Man's faceplate and used it to lift him up and the other man struggled.

"I'm gonna use your head as a door stop Iron Man!" he declared.

"**Now that's just mean!" **Iron Man said before firing at Unicorn with a blast from the middle of his chest, sending the other man flying through a crate and into a support beam. Allowing Iron Man to catch a breath. "**And dumb." **A loud buzzing warned Iron Man of Killer Shrike's approaching, allowing him to activate his repulsors and dodge the shots as he flew towards the last supervillain, who didn't even realize he should fly away until Iron Man was right in his face.

The hero grabbed hold of Shrike and flew clean through the ceiling and into the night sky. Shrike brought his fists together and hit the spot on Iron Man's back that forced him to release his captive. Shrike immediately took flight, his blasters flaring and ready to fire, and started moving away from Iron Man, not paying attention to where he was going.

Killer Shrike hit his head on the beams to a water tower, causing him to lose his balance as he continued to fly and hit another beam and allowing Iron Man to catch up with him and grab onto his wrists.

Shrike struggled as hard as he could until he got one wrist free and jabbed his hand into the crook of Iron Man's armor in between his shoulder and neck, causing the pilot to growl in pain. Shrike laughed at his handiwork.

_"Should've thought more on what to make your armor out of Iron Man…Iron's a conductor and my blasters use electricity!" _Shrike thought to himself as the air began to buzz around them and reek of ozone. "I don't know why you're here Iron Man, but I'm going to enjoy taking you down," Shrike commented, already his assumed victory playing in his mind. He didn't notice Iron Man grab onto his wrists until he held the blaster away from himself, his grip on both of them getting tighter. "Wait…What are you-" Killer Shrike's blasters exploded on his arms and he began to scream as he fell towards the wearhouse.

"**Aw, your blaster helped you fly too? That's a serious design flaw." **

**_"_**_The police should be there any minute," _Rhodey reported through the link.

_"Yea, Dey've been getting' calls ever since de shootin' started." _

"I gotta get out of the armor and back down with the others before Kaiba and Gene suspect anything."

_"I'll pilot the armor back…After you say it. Say it," _ Rhodey demanded. Tony sighed. He knew he was going to regret this later.

"Thank you for saving us all Rhodey, you're my hero," Tony said in a drawling tone.

_"That's right I am."_

_"Now get back to my sister!" _Joey demanded.

* * *

Serenity kept her eyes on the door of the wearhouse as police officers came out with Maggia members. Tristan was standing next to her, giving the death glare to each Maggia member as they came out of the door. Kaiba was holding his brother close to him while Gene hovered by the backseat of the police car that Pepper was sitting in.

"Why haven't they found him?" Pepper asked. "Killer Shrike and Unicorn got away and they haven't found Tony. What if they…" Pepper's voice trailed off.

"Pepper," Gene said. "He's going to be fine."

"Yeah," Tony agreed as he appeared, rubbing his neck. "But next time I want to be rescued by Cottonball Man. Iron hurts." Pepper ran up and threw her arms around Tony's neck in a near death-grip.

"Gene saved me! Which was after you saved me before, you know by the bathroom, but then I kinda saved you!" Tony turned to Gene and smiled.

"Thanks."

"It's nothing. I'm sorry you all got wrapped up in this," Gene said. Tony shrugged.

"I'm quite used to this kinda stuff actually," Mokuba said with a shrug.

"And us high-profile rich kids gotta stick together," Tony said as he extended his hand to Gene. The Asian boy hesitated a moment before shaking Tony's hand.

"Tony!? Serenity?! Tristan?! Pepper!" Kisara called as she appeared from a mass of cops.

"Miss Kisara!" Pepper called. She and Serenity hugged the student-teacher as she ran up to everyone. Kisara hugged back before looking the girls' faces over then looking over Tristan and the Kaibas.

"Is everyone alright? Nothing bad happened? No one hurt or in need of a recharge?" Kisara asked as she glanced at Tony. The raven-haired teen's shoulders stiffened as his face became like stone. "Okay then. The police called me a while ago so does anyone need me to give them a ride home?" Kaiba shook his head.

"My bodyguards are on their way already."

"And I've already called a limo to pick me up," Gene said. Kisara nodded.

"Alright then. Pepper, Serenity, Tristan, Tony, my car's just over here. Let's get going and what is that smell?" Kisara asked and Serenity's face went beet red.

* * *

Serenity peered into the armory. Her freshly-washed hair was still wet. She'd changed from the soiled pants and stinky t-shirt into a pink tank top and strawberry-designed flannel pants. Tony was glancing over the armor he'd used, making sure it wasn't too damaged.

"Tony?" she said as she entered. Tony whirled around and glanced over Serenity.

"Um…Is there a reason you're dressed like that?" he asked as he moved away from the armor.

"They're my pjs. But that's not important." Tony looked her over again as he stopped walking at arms' distance from the girl.

"Kinda would be important if a predator or pervert was walking around." Serenity sighed. "Anyway, what were you going to say?"

"I'm sorry." Tony blinked.

"I'm sorry?" he said.

"Exactly that. I said some stuff earlier about how you shouldn't be Iron Man and leave all this to the police. But after what I saw today I know that some things are too big for the police to handle. And today…I was so scared about Killer Shrike and Unicorn that I kept thinking about your armor and what you could do to get us out of the problem with it. So I'm sorry." Tony smiled and hugged Serenity tightly.

"It's oaky Renie. I understand you were upset earlier. I was hurt pretty badly by the Mandarin guy. But don't worry. I've got some ideas to help even the playing field," Tony said as he tapped his temple. Serenity smiled. "Come on. We've got school tomorrow and you still have to get to bed," Tony said as he wrapped an arm around Serenity's shoulders and his cell phone began to ring. He pulled out the device.

"Who is it?" Serenity asked as the doors to the armory closed.

"It's Gene," Tony said as he answered the call. "Hello?" Tony and Gene started talking as Tony lead Serenity back to the house and made sure she was safely in bed before heading up to his own room. "Seriously, I know you're busy with your step-dad's shop while he's out-of-country. Research on the Rings can wait," Tony insisted.

_"I'll make time,"_ Gene promised over the line.

"Cool. Catch ya tomorrow."

* * *

"Count on it," Gene promised as he hung up the phone before turning back into the Mandarin and entering another room in his underground lair. Killer Shrike and Unicorn were tied up on the wall. "Now then," Mandarin growled. "Where were we?"

* * *

**Phoenix: OH MY STINKING GOSH! That took so long to write! My shoulders hurt! And man am I tired. **

**Cerberus: That means review and make her time worth it! And reviewing some of her other stories wouldn't hurt you know. **

**Phoenix: Cerberus.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Phoenix: Hello readers! Have I got a promise for you! Two chapters in regular Yu-Gi-Oh! coming up soon!**

**Cerberus: At least you're getting somewhere.**

**Phoenix: Shut up you. Now then, please enjoy the chapter and please review!**

**Cold War**

**By Sailor Phoenix1997**

The morning sun was just starting to peek over the New York horizon as Tony zoomed through the air.

"I mean, it's weird right? A Stark facility is broken into and they don't call the police. Have they called now?" Tony asked into the comlink.

* * *

Rhodey stretched in the remote controls while Serenity was busy typing away at the computer. Tristan and Joey were leaning against each other, snoring peacefully.

"Dude, it's really early for this," Rhodey mumbled.

* * *

Tony rolled his eyes.

"Rhodey! Focus. Have they called the police yet?"

_"Alright alright. Renie's on it already," _Rhodey said.

"_No change Tony!" _Serenity called over the link as Tony came to a stop over the robbed facility.

_"Okay you win. That's weird," _Rhodey agreed.

"Unless Stane doesn't want the police to know what he's doing in there," Tony concluded.

_"So that means what?" _Rhodey asked.

"That means I'm going in."

_"You have to at school in less than an hour!" _Serenity scolded over the intercom.

_"Are you crazy?!" _Rhodey agreed as he shook his toothbrush near the monitor that showed in Tony's helmet. Tony's eyes widened as he scanned his surroundings and landed.

"Maybe because it looks like its…_snowing," _Tony said. Slowly, he walked into the building. A rather easy task since a large hole was in the door. Inside the building huge icicles hung from the ceiling, some even touching the floor as snow drifted around. Mist created by the contrasting frozen temperature and the warmth of New York City ghosted around, making the entire interior white. "Are you seeing this?" Tony asked.

* * *

Serenity and Rhodey stared wide-eyed at the screen.

"Whoa," they said in unison.

* * *

Tony looked around the room a bit.

"I'm switching to thermal imaging," he reported as the computer obeyed him, turning the room into a blanket of deep violet and blue with some greens mixed in and something red that was moving closer. "Wait…Something's moving."

Tony walked around a large pile of crates to face a machine that looked somewhat like armor but with a square head and square-features rather than the form-fitting ones he had.

**"Uh…Hello?" **The armor turned around and raised its arm to face Iron Man. Two thin pieces clicked together above the glove and a blaster was under the hand. The man fired one short blast that grazed iron Man's shoulder. "**Hey! What'd you do that for?!" **he demanded. A dull thud sounded behind him as one of Stane's security drones fell from the air as a huge cube of ice. **"Oh." **

"Iron Man. What are you doing here?" the armored man said.

**"Well I was…Hey! I'm asking the questions. What are you doing here? Who are you?" **Iron Man demanded, neither of the men noticing more security drones appearing from the mist.

_"T! Watch your back!" _Rhodey called.

"I see them!" Tony replied as he activated his force shields just as the drones began firing lasers. Iron Man shot into the air and waited until the drones stopped firing before he released his own blasts and the other man released his blasts of ice.

The man raised his blaster into the air and fired one small sphere that exploded in mid-air, freezing all the remaining drones at once. Iron Man landed and shot one last blast over the man's shoulder, hitting the last of the drones.

"**You're welcome." **

"I saw you on TV. You saved Stark International from that runaway train. I thought you worked for Stane," the man said.

"**Not even close. Now who are you and what are you doing here?" **

"My name's Donnie Gill. I used to work here at Stark International years ago, doing cryogenics research for Obadiah Stane. He wanted to turn my work into a weapon." Iron Man nodded.

**"He wanted to turn your work into a weapon…"**

_"Uh oh," _Rhodey said.

"You wanna know what I'm doing here?" Donnie asked. "I've come back for my research and equipment and when I find it I'm gonna take Stane down." Iron Man watched as Donnie opened a container and pulled out something.

**"Well in that case I've got only one question for you…How can I help?"**

* * *

"This is awesome guys," Tony said as he flew through New York, back to the armory. "He calls himself the Blizzard. I should've known I'm not the only one ticked off at Stane. I think Blizzard hates him more than me."

_"Yea about that," _Rhodey said over his cell phone earpiece. "_Did something seem a little off to you about Blizzard?"_

_"Yea, from what Serenity and Rhodey have told us, dis guys seems a bit creepy," _Joey agreed.

_"how do you know you can trust this guy Tony?" _Tristan agreed.

"Stane framed him for some accident. Donnie had to go on the run. He lost his wife, his kids, his whole life. And he's a scientist," Tony insisted as he flew over his school.

"_Oh right," _Serenity said. "_He's a scientist. My fears are settled." _

"Seriously guys, I remember my dad talking about this. An accident as SI cryogenics. I think the police were involved."

* * *

"Well one, you should look into that before you agree to work with this guy," Rhodey said calmly. "And two…" He slammed his locker door shut. "You're totally going to be late for school! Again!"

_"Never! I'll get to the armory, take a shower, get changed and get to school with plenty of time to spare." _

* * *

Tony mentally cursed as the bell sounded as he raced down the hall. He burst into the classroom, catching the attention of every student and Kisara.

"Made it," Tony panted as he began jotting notes on a piece of paper. Kisara narrowed her eyes, unamused as she pushed some of her white hair back into her bun.

"_That _bell, Mr. Stark, was for the _end _of class. You're an hour late." The students gathered their things and left the room but Kaiba stayed behind a little.

"Can't you read your own watch Stark?" he mocked.

"Watch it Kaiba," Joey growled. Kaiba raised an eyebrow at him.

"Feeling brave today…Aren't we mutt?" Joey snarled.

"Call me a mutt one more time Kaiba and we'll see who's runnin' off with dier tail between dier legs!" Kaiba chuckled.

"That sounds like fun, pounding you into the dirt and all but I have a class to get to."

"Sounds to me like yer scared Kaiba!" Joey mocked, causing Kaiba to look over his shoulder, glaring at the blonde.

"Unlike mutts who chase their tail, I don't have time to waste." Joey's fists clenched.

"Kaiba you-" Sarah placed a hand on Joey's shoulder.

"He's not worth it Joey," she said kindly. "And I think Tony needs our attention more." She jabbed her head into the room where Kisara was handing a piece of paper to Tony before grabbing her bag and leaving, with Tony quick behind her.

"So what's a detention?" Tony asked as he held up the slip.

"Something you'll be having a lot of I believe," Rhodey said as the group headed towards their lockers to get their books. As Tony neared his, he pulled out his Pod and pressed a button, opening his locker door and making it pull into the tiny space between his locker and Rhodey's.

"Pretty cool right?" Tony said as he unloaded his backpack.

"Hi!" Pepper shouted as she jumped out behind the boys, making them all jump and whirl to face her in surprise. "So how many times have you been late since you've been here? Like, every day! Are you going for a record? If only there was some way for you to know what time it was…Like with a clock," Pepper said very quickly.

"Rhodey, make Pepper stop bugging me," Tony said.

"No," Rhodey said with a smile.

"Hey, a bunch of us are going to grab a bite to eat after last period. Do you eat? Because if not…You should," Pepper said, again very quickly.

"Can't too much work to do," Tony said as the group headed towards their next class.

"Work?" Pepper snorted. "You're sixteen and totally rich. What work? I'm thinking of getting a job at the police station. I'm hoping they'll let me interrogate people."

"I don't think they'd let you do that Pepper," Sarah said quietly.

"Yea. Probably just paperwork for de interns," Joey agreed. Tony and Rhodey looked at each other before turning back to Pepper.

"Hey Pepper, your dad's an FBI agent, right? Can his computer access people's criminal records? Like if I give you a name you could look it up?" Pepper nodded.

"Of course. But I'd have to know all my dad's log-ins, key change, and passwords…Which I do. What's this for?"

"The guys are worried about someone I'm trying to help. He used to work at my dad's company."

"No problem. Text me the name and I'll let you know what I find. On one condition…"

"What's that?" Tony asked, a little nervous. _"Please don't make it that I have to do something embarrassing or worse…" _

"You two, as in you and Rhodey," Pepper said, pointing at both of them. "Have to promise to come to the party this weekend."

"Happy Hogan's party?" Rhodey said.

"Seriously?" Tristan moaned as he covered his eyes.

"Yea!" Pepper squealed. "His parents are out of town and it's guaranteed entertainment, I mean it's Happy! And…There's karaoke!"

"Ooh! That does sound fun," Rhodey agreed as the group rounded the corner.

"Glad I don't have to go," Joey said.

"And seriously you guys never hang out. You never relax," Pepper continued. "Seriously Tony, you look stressed out. Promise me you'll come?"

"Happy! Cut it out!" Serenity snapped down the hall. The group looked up at the tall boy standing behind the tiny auburn-haired girl as she collected her books from her locker.

"Please Renie. Please. You're one of the coolest girls in school, you should totally come to my party."

"Happy, you've said please almost a thousand times," Serenity said as she shut her locker.

"Please?!"

"OKAY!" she shrieked. Happy fisted the air as Serenity stormed off towards her next class and Joey walked up to Happy.

"You've got a lotta guts. Can't you take a hint?" Happy beamed.

"So you wanna come too Joe-man?" Happy said as he wrapped an arm around Joey's shoulders. "Don't worry. I wanted to invite you and T-man anyway. What do ya say?" Joey pushed Happy's arm off him and glared.

"We-" Tristan grabbed his friend's arm and yanked him close so he could whisper in his ear.

"Dude, we should go. If just to keep an eye on your sister at least. I mean…It's Happy." Joey glanced back at Happy and sighed.

"We'd be happy to come…Happy." Happy beamed again.

"Great! See ya guys!" Tony turned to Pepper as Happy walked off.

"We'll all be there," Tony promised.

"Good. And don't be late."

* * *

"Iron Man?" Stane growled. Trisha bit nervously on the inside of her lip. "Bad enough Donnie Gil is back but now Iron man is helping him? Wonderful."

"Sir?" said the guard next to him. "We should really inform the police."

"Shut up!" Stane snapped. _"The last thing I need is the police snooping around Stark International, swinging their handcuffs all over the place…Hm…Handcuffs. Good for holding people in place." _Stane gave his head a shake. "I know what Gil is after. So instead of calling the police…" An image of Serenity in a pair of knee-high black boots, a short deep blue skirt, a similarly colored shirt with a name tag and police badge and a police hat on, holding a pair of handcuffs appeared in Stane's mind, making a feral grin spread across his face. "I think I'll eliminate both him and Iron Man and take the Iron Man armor after." He turned to Trisha only to see an image of Serenity in Trisha's clothes. "Ser-Trisha, bring me my old files on Gil's cryogenic research."

* * *

"You're jealous of my gloves. Admit it!" Tony said giddily as he twisted his arm around in the thick gauntlet he was crafting.

"You got us," Rhodey sighed.

"We're jealous," Tristan continued as he looked from his math book to the homework he was working on and Tony pulled off the gauntlet and laid it on the computer worktable along with a matching one and a set of tools.

"That's right you all are! They shoot _lasers._ And probably a bunch of other stuff by the time I get done with them," Tony said as the computer turned itself on.

"Uh dude?" Joey said. "Did you really design a suit of armor with roller skates on it?" Tony covered the sketches on the screen with his hands, his face turning red as he spoke.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," he defended as he moved the designs over and away from his friends.

"Right," Serenity said. "How about we go eat Skater boy?"

"You guys go on ahead without me. I've got more work to do here," Tony excused.

"Pepper was right man," Rhodey said. "You need to relax."

"Have some fun once in a while," Tristan agreed.

"Stane is turning my dad's company into something evil guys," Tony said sharply. "Should I hang out and have fun while my dad's work is destroyed?"

"Tony…" Joey said as he put a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"We didn't mean-" Serenity started before the computer started beeping loudly.

_"Searching complete. Uploading data to armor systems." _Tony's friends looked at him quizzically.

"I ran a search on the Stark mainframe looking for Blizzard's equipment. This is it. I'll help Blizzard find his stuff and then we'll expose Stane for what he really is," Tony said, a smile coming to his face. "Trust me guys." Tony looked back at his work, not noticing the scowls that etched into Rhodey and Joey's faces.

* * *

Iron Man hovered outside the next Stark facility. The night was unusually quiet for New York. Tony was reading off the parts needed in his head until one in particular caught his eye.

"Power core?" he whispered to himself as Blizzard walked up behind him.

"Are you ready to do this?" the scientist asked.

"**The list of parts, I looked it over," **Iron Man informed. "**You're building a weapon." **

"It's the weapon Stane tried to build from _my _research. I'm recreating it," Donnie defended.

**"Why?" **

"The world has to see who he is…What he's capable of," Blizzard explained, desperation becoming slightly evident in his voice.

**"I'm not going to help you build a weapon." **

Steam blew out from Blizzard's helmet before it opened, revealing a man's face that may have once been handsome but was now half purple-black and looked like a giant scab. The eye had gone from white to red and the scar made a permanent frown on the man's face.

"This is what Stane does when there's no one there to stop him. He _destroyed _my life! And if we don't do something, he'll destroy others! Now I need to know Iron Man…Are you in?" Iron Man fell silent for a moment.

**"Yea…I'm in." **

* * *

"Blizzard told me everything," Tony whispered in class to his friends as the teacher droned on. "Working for Stane, the accident…"

"Can't you even think like school means something to you?" Rhodey hissed.

"You guys should've seen him…His face…What happened to him…It was awful…" Tony continued, his eyes glued to his desktop.

"Yea, we get it," Tristan whispered.

"But are you sure dis guy's not just usin' ya ta get some payback?" Joey pressed.

"There's only one thing a weapon's good for," Rhodey concluded.

"You didn't see him guys," Tony said, finality ringing in his tone. He felt his chair move a bit and he peeked over his shoulder, just as Joey was. Happy was leaning towards Gene, who was paying attention to the teacher.

"Hey," Happy whispered. "Gene Khan. Dude, you should come to my party. Oh it's gonna be crazy man. And I'm Dj-in' the thing myself, yeah!" Gene glanced over at Happy.

"Really? Well in that case I'll definitely come," Gene said, although Happy didn't pick up on the sarcasm at all.

"Really?" he said. Gene's eyes narrowed.

"No." Happy leaned instead towards his other side where Kaiba sat.

"Hey Ka-"

"You say one more word to me I will have the police dragging your sorry athletic hide downtown faster than you can say, 'Oops'." Happy leaned away from Kaiba, who hadn't once looked up from the book he was reading.

* * *

"This thing with Stane is taking over your life Tony," Rhodey said over the honking cars of New York that echoed onto the school roof.

"But this is my chance to stop him. I'm so close. And for once I'm not alone," Tony countered.

"You're not alone NOW!" Joey roared.

"Joey's right," Rhodey said. "We've been right with you every step of the way and you can't even bother to listen to us!"

"Dis guy is bad news!" Joey continued.

"Don't act like you know what I'm going through!" Tony shouted, his fists clenching at his sides and he wasn't noticing Joey's fists doing the same as his teeth ground together. "I can't not try guys! I have to do this…For my _dad_!"

"Your dad wouldn't want this. He wanted you to have friends and a life! Not revenge!" Rhodey pressed as Tony's Pod began to ring. Tony pulled it out and sent the call to voicemail.

"It's Pepper," he said calmly.

"She's probably calling about Happy's party tonight. You promised you'd go," Rhodey reminded.

"I'm supposed to meet Blizzard. We're getting the last component for his device," Tony said, knowing it wasn't a good excuse.

"_Weapon. _Not device. This is wrong Tony, don't do it!" Tony's Pod began to ring again and again he sent it to voicemail.

"You don't understand! I _have _to do this!" Tony shouted.

"Then do it without me!" Rhodey said as he turned and left the roof. Tony turned to Joey, who's face had gone red in anger.

"You got something you wanna say too?!" Joey's shoulders shook as he took a deep breath and released it slowly.

"I do know what you're goin' through man. Serenity and my Ma left me when I was a kid with my dad. I joined a gang and was real cruel to de people who became my best friends once I left dat gang. You've got it good Tony. You've got friends right from de start. Don't go messin' dat up. And it's probably best ta start with Rhodey," Joey growled as he left the roof too.

Tony stood there for a moment and then followed his friends off the roof.

"Anthony Edward Stark." Tony whirled around and placed a hand on where his heart should've been beating.

"Kisara, don't scare me like that! Trying to kill me or something?!" Kisara glared at her cousin and rubbed the back of her neck, where a few curls had fallen from her bun.

"Tony…What're you up to? You've been late before but never as late as you were yesterday. Is someone influencing you like Rhodey suggested?" Tony scowled at Kisara.

"What do you care? You left three years ago without a word to me or Dad. Then when I hear from you again you're my teacher and suddenly you think you know everything about me?! I don't think so Kisara Stark! We may share the same last name, we may have been raised by the same man but trust me-"

"This is about that Tony!" Kisara snapped. "I worry about you because I truly care."

"Yea right," Tony growled as he turned and left.

"Tony!" Kisara called. Upon receiving no response from her cousin other than him moving faster away from her, she sighed and remained where she was.

* * *

Sarah watched as Joey stormed by and slammed open his locker door.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Joey muttered some incoherent things under his breath as he grabbed his books. "Joey?"

"Stupid little…Can't believe he said somethin' like dat!" Joey said as he slammed the door shut, making Sarah flinch.

"S-Said something like what?" she asked.

"He said dat I didn' understand what he was goin' through!" Joey yelled as he turned on Sarah, making her jump a little, her eyes wide and reflecting his angry glare in her dark pupils. Slowly, Joey calmed down. "Sarah…I-I'm sorry. I just…" Sarah shook her hand.

"It's nothing. But I think he's right…" Sarah muttered. Joey gave her a wide-eyed look.

"Why?"

"Because he's lost his dad forever. You've been reunited with your sister and mother," she explained as she pushed a piece of her hair behind her ear nervously. Joey nodded.

"Maybe I overreacted a bit," Joey admitted with his hands in his pockets. Sarah nodded. "Hey, I just thought of dis but are ya goin' to Happy Hogan's party?" Sarah's eyes widened.

"Happy Hogan's throwing a party? Uh…" She glanced from side to side. "I've got other plans!" she said quickly with a smile.

* * *

Blizzard walked through the mist his suit generated as the warm night grew cold around him. Iron Man flew overhead and landed, stepping into stride with Blizzard without a word. Blizzard fired his gun and the front doors fell apart like splinters of glass. Donnie blasted the floor, covering it with a thick layer of ice and filling the room with more pale mist.

Iron Man bent over the ice and punched into it, causing a huge crack to appear, not only in the ice but the concrete floor underneath.

* * *

Pepper peeked into her father's office. The man in question was asleep on the couch parallel to the desk, the computer on it bathing the room in a pale blue light.

"Great," Pepper whispered with a smile as she tip-toed in. A floorboard under her foot creaked and her father jumped, waking slightly from his sleep. Pepper bit her lip before moving over to her father. "Uh…You're sleeping…I'm not even here. You're dreaming all of this…I am the best daughter ever," Pepper whispered in a voice that tried imitating a ghost.

Her father – a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair blinked sleepily.

"Shh Pepper…Talk too much…Trying to sleep," he muttered as he rolled onto his side and fell asleep again. Pepper smiled and moved over to his computer.

* * *

_Slap._

Pause.

_Bounce._

_Slap._

Pause.

Serenity sighed as she looked up from her English assignment to her brother and Rhodey who were busy tossing a baseball at each other.

"It's like some sort of funeral or something…It's way too quiet," Tristan murmured. Serenity nodded just as Rhodey's cell phone rang loudly. He looked away to answer it.

"Rhodey!" Joey warned just as the ball hit the other teen in the forehead. Rhodey rubbed at the spot for a second before answering the phone and putting it on speaker.

"Tony?"

_"No it's me. Where'd you guys go after school and where is Tony? He is not answering his cell," _Pepper said quickly over the phone. _"You better not bail on the party because there is no way I'm going by myself."_

"Uh…Yea about that-"

_"Nananananananananah! I'm not listening to you! I am just assuming you will be there and I will hurt you if you aren't! I'm calling because I got the info Tony wanted on that guy…It's not good," _Pepper said her tone going from enthusiastic and quick so solemn and slow.

* * *

Blizzard looked down at the crate that had been hidden under the concrete and pulled it up onto the unbroken ice. He opened the top to reveal a pale-blue light emitting form a cylinder

"Freeze!" shouted a security guard. "You're surrounded!" Iron Man glanced around. True enough there was a security guard at every angle.

_"They must've snuck up on us through the mist," _he thought to himself.

"Put down the power core and lie down on the ground, both of you!" the guard ordered.

"**We have to get out of here." **

**"**Why? All he said was _freeze,_" Blizzard said as he leveled his own weapon with the armed men.

**"Wait! Don't!" **Iron Man roared as Blizzard fired, turning each man into an instant ice sculpture. Iron Man's throat clenched. These were men with lives…Most with families…Wives and kids that he had gotten to know and played with from time to time as Tony Stark. He took flight and checked over each one's vitals. **"They're still alive," **he breathed, relieved as he blasted the ice to pieces, freeing the now unconscious men. **"What's the matter with you?! You could've killed them!" **Iron Man roared at Blizzard and for the first time he started thinking that maybe Rhodey and Joey had been right.

"A small price to pay for getting Stane."* Blizzard said dismissively.

* * *

"But what about de accident?" Joey asked.

"Yea, Gil said-"

_"Yea, the police suspected there was some sort of cover-up but this guy had a criminal record even before then," _Pepper said.

"But what about Gil's wife and kids?" Serenity asked.

_"Uh…Where are you guys getting all this? Gil doesn't have a wife _or _kids. Guys…Stane hired Donnie Gil right out of jail. Technology theft, illegal experimentation, this guy's like an evil scientist or something…Guys, please tell me Tony's not getting mixed up with this guy." _Rhodey and the others looked at each other, unable to answer her.

* * *

"**I want to take down Stane too, but you can't just hurt innocent people," **Iron Man said as he walked around Blizzard.

"I'll do more than hurt them if they get in my way," Donnie promised.

**"No you won't…I won't let you!" **

"That's too bad," Blizzard said as he latched onto Iron Man's armor, ice beginning to grow like moss on a still rock. "You hear that?" Blizzard mocked as the ice began growing down Iron Man's back and up his neck. "That's the sound of your body _freezing. _It'll be the last sound you'll ever hear."

_"Warning: system failure in progress," _the computer reported over the blaring alarm in Tony's helmet. _"Life support failing." _

"N-n-n-NO!" Tony yelled as he activated his repulsors, causing the ice to break off his body. Donnie wasn't about to give up so easily. He fired a small beeping device at Iron Man, who activated his unibeam, causing the weapon to explode in midair, sending ice everywhere and making both Iron Man's ears ring to the point he almost couldn't hear his computer.

_"Critical warning: Power loss eminent. Batteries at 2.7%." _

"Still alive in there?" Blizzard asked, no sympathy or kindness in his tone, but mocking cruelty. Tony felt like he'd been kicked in the gut so hard, he'd lost even the acidic fluid that broke down his food. "Not for long." Iron Man pushed himself up and blasted his way through the ceiling, disappearing into the night skies.

* * *

Tony chucked the Iron Man helmet against the computer wall as he walked over to his recharge station for a breather.

"So stupid…How could I have been such an idiot?" he asked, barely hearing the door open, allowing his friends into the armory. "Rhodey and Joey were right about Blizzard, they were right about everything."

"You forgot that we're better looking than you too," Rhodey said with a light smirk.

"Rhodey…Joey…Tristan…Serenity…I acted like such a tool…I should've listened to you. I'm…"

"It's okay man, ya don't gotta say it," Joey assured. "We all know we're better lookin' dan ya," he chuckled.

"So what now?" Tristan asked.

"Blizzard has everything he needs to build his weapon…This is all my fault. He's going after Stane and he'll hurt anyone that gets in his way. I've gotta stop him." Rhodey glanced over at Serenity.

"You know Tony, if you ever go to English class make sure you check out the whole 'Irony' thing," Rhodey said.

"But that out you guys, he feels bad enough," Serenity scolded as Rhodey took a seat at the controls and Tony took a look at the thicker armor he'd been making. Serenity started typing away at the computer. "I'm plugged into the Stark mainframe," she reported. Tony smiled.

"Hey good job Serenity. I see Rhodey's been giving you some pointers while I'm out," he praised.

"This is no time for that Tony," she said, somewhat panicked. "Alarms are going off all over the building. He's already there Tony." Tony pulled the larger gauntlet over his own.

"I'm late again…But this time, I'll be dressed for cold weather," he said as he made a fist in the armor. The armory fell silent for a moment.

"What was that supposed to be?" Serenity asked.

"Some sort of hero line from the sixties?" Tristan suggested.

"Dude," Rhodey groaned as he rested a hand over his eyes.

"Dat was terrible," Joey finished.

* * *

"As I recall the plan was to eliminate him at the storage facility, that's why they call it a TRAP!" Stane started out smooth and calm but his voice soon escalated to a yell as he brought his fist down on his desk with a loud BANG!

"Mister Stane…The elevators are frozen up and the stairwells are filled with ice. A helicopter is on the way but…"

"I don't want excuses! I want out of here!" Stane roared. "Where is he now?"

* * *

Blizzard walked past yet another employee he used to call a co-worker that he left frozen in ice, caught in mid scream in a futile attempt to run away. He'd left every floor like this so far. Ice practically filling the rooms, trapping employees and security guards in their place, turning the walls and steel fortifications around him to peanut brittle and leaving a pale white mist ghosting over the floor like dust.

A hologram of Stane's head appeared at the desk he approached.

"Hello Donnie," Stane said. Blizzard's helmet blew steam before it snapped open, revealing the disfigured face underneath.

"Obadiah," Donnie spat.

"You're not still upset about that little accident you had are you?" Stane asked in a patronizing tone.

"Accident?! You destroyed my life!" Donnie roared.

"I was trying to make your machine better. Now, how about you and I talk like reasonable men?" Donnie's face twisted even more as he snarled and his helmet snapped into place and he turned towards the door that lead to Obadiah's office.

* * *

The guards that had been assembled readied their guns as ice began to appear on their side of the door.

The second the door exploded, the room followed suit with gunshots, mist and an icy chill. The icy chill and mist made the guards stop for an instant but it was already an instant too late as Blizzard hadn't been affected by anything, not even the shots fired at him. One by one, he turned each guard into an over-sized ice cube as he advanced on Stane.

"Oh…You made it better," Blizzard assured. "Let me show you." Stane's eyes widened in terror, just as Iron Man flew through the window, grabbed Blizzard round the middle and flew him right out of the room, and punched him through the floor once the threshold passed them. "You should've stayed away Iron Man!" Blizzard roared in rage. "Stane's gonna get what's coming to him! And now you are too!"

Blizzard leveled his blaster to Iron Man, who activated his shields, rendering Blizzard's initial attacks useless. Iron Man turned the energy from his shield into a long red blast, that sent Blizzard flying into the far wall.

**"That's what you get for making me save Stane!" **Iron Man roared as he advanced on the white armored man. Blizzard clenched his fist and surrounded it with a white light. He punched Iron Man in the gut, sending him flying across the floor and into the wall on the opposite side of the building.

* * *

"Ouch!" Joey winced as he gazed over Rhodey's shoulder at the monitor for Tony's armor.

"You might want to consider some self-defense classes," Serenity suggested.

"Or kickboxing," Rhodey suggested.

_"Yea. It's not like I'm wearing a trillion dollar suit but now I also have to learn karate too!" _Tony snapped through the intercom.

* * *

Blizzard blasted the already frozen floor so the ice crawled up Iron Man's legs.

**"Don't do this Blizzard. Don't-"**

"Don't what?! Get my revenge?! Take out Stane?! Are you that stupid Iron Man?" Blizzard spat as he walked up to the other armored man.

He stopped a few yards away and spread his arms as the white mist began to thicken around him and swirl like a hurricane.

"_This _is what I was building for Stane! Before he ruined it! Ruined _me_!" Blizzard was so caught up in what he was saying that he didn't notice Iron Man was freeing himself from the ice on his legs. "Now! I'm going to use it to freeze the life out of him! OUT OF EVERYONE!"

The sphere around Blizzard expanded until it encased the whole room, Iron Man included.

_"Tony!" _Serenity yelled through the intercom.

"_Whoa," _Rhodey agreed.

_"Warning: Environmental alert: Temperatures dropping to critical level." _

"He's producing a sphere of…Of cold!" Tony said. "The structure of the building…It won't be able to handle it. The tower's going to collapse!"

_"Dat's not good. 'Cause security's reportin' dere's still people trapped inside!" _Joey reported.

"_You've got to get them out!" _Tristan said.

"**Here goes nothing," **Iron Man growled as he activated his boot jets and grabbed hold of Blizzard's blasters.

"I guess you really are stupid. Don't worry Iron Man, freezing isn't a bad way to go. Take it from me," Blizzard said as ice began to cover Iron Man's armor. Iron Man threw his head forward and head-butted Blizzard, activated his boot jets again and flew both of them through the next wall.

Iron Man stepped away from Blizzard as the white armor began to spark.

"No! What-What have you-" Blizzard tried to push himself up as ice began to form around his body and a heavy wind of cold began to swirl around him. Iron Man took flight for the instant it took for the wind to stop and Blizzard to be sealed in his own ice.

Iron Man checked his vitals.

**"**He's alive," Tony reported into the intercom. "He's been cryogenically frozen." A low whirring sound echoed through the icy hall as a security drone appeared and a hologram of Obadiah Stane's head appeared.

"You both survived…Imagine my disappointment. But I'm glad to know that every second you're in this building, my engineers are analyzing your armor. Everything you say, every signal you put out…All recorded. I'll find out who you are and then I'll take that armor from you," Stane said in a calm, collected voice.

"**Your time is coming Stane," **Iron Man said before he blasted the drone to oblivion and blasted into the night skies.

* * *

Rhodey dusted a few icicles off the armor.

"Man, if only he'd brought the roller-skate armor," Rhodey chuckled. Joey and Tristan did the same.

"Yea, den he couldn't've touched ya!" Joey laughed. Tony glared at his friends from his recharge station.

"Ha ha, you jerks," Tony said. "But I think a suit of Arctic armor might be a good idea. Or space armor…" Serenity smiled.

"Let me guess, you're going to get started on that right away?" Serenity said.

"Actually, I've got a better idea," Tony said with a grin.

* * *

Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, Serenity, Tristan and Joey all sat in random seats next to each other as the music blared loudly. The party had been less than what was promised. Only they had showed up, the music was only a beat with someone making a grunting noise every now and then and blaring at high volume and Happy was dancing – or what could be excused as dancing – on the opposite sofa.

"And by better idea…I mean horrible, horrible idea!" Tony yelled over the music.

"Go Happy! Go Happy!" Happy yelled as he jumped on the arm of the couch before he feel forward and landed on the floor with a thud. "I'm okay!" he shouted.

_BAM! BAM! BAM! _The door rattled as whoever it was slammed against it quickly. Happy leapt up and opened the door, revealing one royally ticked-off-looking student teacher.

Kisara had changed from her school-time attire to a ruffled white t-shirt and a pair of jeans and let her white hair tumble free to her knees.

"ANTHONY EDWARD STARK! JAMES RUPERT RHODES! PATRITCIA VIGINIA POTTS! TRISTAN TIMOTHY TAYLOR! JOSEPH WILLIAM WHEELER! SERENITY ELIZABETH WHEELER! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU'RE IN?!" Kisara roared. Everyone stood up and looked at each other. "I'VE BEEN GETTING CALLS FROM YOUR PARENTS AND GUARDIANS ALL NIGHT! NOT TO MENTION I HAD TO DRIVE HALFWAY AROUND NEW YORK BEFORE I FOUND YOU!" Everyone opened their mouths to explain but Kisara held up a hand. "GET TO MY CAR NOW! YOU'RE ALL GOING HOME!" No one argued with her tone.

One by one they all left the house with Kisara glaring at them before she grabbed the doorknob.

"Have a nice evening Mr. Hogan," she said before she slammed the door shut, making the pictures on the wall rattle. Happy looked outside the window as his invitees all climbed into Kisara's deep blue van.

* * *

"Is everyone alright?" Kisara asked calmly as she started the car.

"Uh…Yea we're fine," Tristan said. "But weren't you mad, Miss Stark?" Kisara smirked.

"Acting Tristan. And don't call me Miss Stark when I'm off campus. That was my mother. I'm Kisara off duty, okay? And Sarah, you can come up now," Kisara said as she turned into the road. Sarah popped up from her place in the shotgun seat and looked back at her friends.

"Hey guys!" she said.

"Sarah came and told me about the party," Kisara explained. "Now then, how about we head to a pizza place with an arcade and a karaoke machine?" Everyone looked at each other then back to Kisara.

"Really Kisara?" Rhodey asked.

"Of course. I happen to know a great place around here where the owner owes me a bit of a favor. Anyone up for it?" Everyone's hands went up in the air and Kisara chuckled. "Great, now let's go."

* * *

**Phoenix: How was that?**

**Cerberus: Moving along please.**

**Phoenix: Shut up you. Now, please review and keep it nice. And those two chapters I promised are coming up soon! Bye!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Phoenix: Hey everyone. I updated a while ago and here's the next chapter!**

**Cerberus: Please tell me someone goes BOOM!**

**Phoenix: Shut up! But someone does get their mind blown in this chapter. **

**Whiplash**

**By Sailor Phoenix1997**

The New York night was dark, only broken by the flashlight that was streaming over the grounds of the power plant. The man holding the light held a phone to his ear as he walked.

"Pepper…Hm-hm…Pepper, Pepper! You can't come, we can't team up, you can't have any weapons, especially a tear gas grenade, I can't tell you where I am, and no, I can't tell you what I'm working on," he said quickly.

_"Dad, be honest. Is there a bomb that needs defusing?!"_ Pepper asked loudly on the other line. Her father pulled the phone away for a second to regain his hearing.

"What?! No! There isn't a bomb that needs defusing! Don't you have homework to do?" he asked as he walked up to a door. He knelt down and put his flashlight in his mouth as Pepper went on and on on the other line. He pulled out a small device from his pocket and slid it in and with a flick of his wrist, the door opened soundlessly. "Look, it's just going to be one of those nights, sweetie. Don't wait up…And don't go through my files or my computer!" With a sigh, Agent Potts put his cell phone away before continuing on his way into the building.

Carefully he looked around, his flashlight's glow falling on stacks of wood and metal but nothing else. Slowly, the FBI agent pulled out his gun and stepped cautiously further into the building.

A light, metallic hissing noise crept through the room as glowing red whips - alive with electricity – ghosted down behind Agent Potts. The man snapped around just as the electrowhips snapped at him, wrapping tightly around his body, making the man send an agonized scream into the air.

* * *

Tony smirked to himself as the blue flame of the welding torch slid over the silver and red plating of his new armor's chest plate and the door to the armory opened, letting his friends in.

"Here's a crazy thought," Rhodey said. Tony turned and smiled at his friends. Serenity let out a tiny "Eep!" at the sight of Tony in his work goggles. "You ever tried sleeping? It's something normal people do at night."

"You lost me at normal," Tony said jokingly. Rhodey shook his head as the others formed a semicircle around Tony and his project.

"Another suit?!" Joey said.

"Gotta keep up," Tony said as if that explained everything.

"With what? The latest fashions?" Tristan teased. "You gonna add bell bottoms to this one?"

"Guys, cut it out," Serenity scolded.

"I've got to be ready guys. You've seen what I've been going up against."

"Not to imply that you're evil but didn't you design the Earth Movers?" Rhodey said.

"And wasn't Blizzard's tech developed by your dad's company?" Tristan finished.

"Right. But Killer Shrike and Unicorn…They're common criminals. Where do they get tech almost as advanced as the ones I'm working on?"

"Almost?" Joey repeated.

"Hey I won didn't I?" Tony said. Serenity placed Tony's backpack on top of the new armor.

"We're going to be late for school you big winner," she teased.

"Again!" Rhodey pressed as he walked towards the door. "Oh and Pepper called. She said she'd been trying to call you all night." Tony pulled his Pod out of his pocket.

_"You have 47 new messages." _The computer stated.

"Scary thing is, it's probably just one long message," Joey said.

* * *

Tony tapped his foot gently on the floor as the water dispenser he'd installed in his locker filled the large, paper soda cup he had. Once the cup was full, Tony put a lid on top and stuck a straw in before taking a sip. Rhodey and the others gave him a curious look.

"What? I wasn't using it for anything else," Tony said as he closed his locker door.

"TONY!" Pepper yelled from her place right behind the door, making almost everyone but Sarah and Serenity jump. "Where have you been? Why haven't you called me? Didn't you get my messages? Did you screen me?" she asked rapidly before she noticed the water in his hand. "Oh, can I have a drink of that?"

"Whoa, Pepper. Slow down, use fewer words," Tony ordered. Pepper bit hard on her lip and looked around for the right words.

"Mm…Worried…About…My dad," she forced out. The boys looked at each other.

"Is everything okay?" Sarah asked as she placed a hand on Pepper's shoulder.

"I don't know. He's been acting all weird. He's been working on this case but he won't ask me anything about it," she explained quickly.

"Um Pepper," Tony said. "Shouldn't he never tell you about his cases?"

"Yea, I'm sure as an FBI agent some of his cases put himself in danger just because he knows things. I'm sure he doesn't want you to get hurt," Tristan said and Serenity nodded her agreement.

"And isn't it an FBI rule?" Joey asked. "Not to tell de family what you're workin' on?"

"More of a guideline in my opinion," Pepper said. "But I was hoping you could…Uh…I mean, there's something I have to ask you…Uh…Can we talk in private?" Pepper said as Gene Khan passed.

"Hey, there's Gene. I gotta catch him before class. Can we talk about this later?" Tony asked as he put the soda cup in Pepper's hands. "Thanks Pepper!" Sarah reached out and grabbed Tony's arm.

"You always blow her off. If there is something real serious going on here and Pepper ends up hurt by something you could've prevented, I'm going to be there to say I told you so," she hissed. Tony shook his head and walked on.

* * *

Tony half-listened to the teacher as he sketched more armor designs in his notebooks.

"Which in turn creates an amplified beam of light also known as a laser," the professor said. Tony smirked to himself.

"Actually sir…" Tony said with a raised hand. Rhodey yanked his hand down roughly and shushed him in a similar manner. "What? There's been a lot of-"

"Shh!" Rhodey hissed.

"But…"

"Dude, shut up!" Happy hissed.

"Seriously dude. Every time you open your mouth the entire class has to do some crazy research assignment!" Joey whispered.

"Don't think you can do it mutt?" Kaiba joked.

"I'll show you what you can't do once I'm through with you," Joey hissed as his fists clenched.

"Mister Stark, did you have something to add?" Kisara asked. Tony looked around at his friends and shook his head.

"No, I don't," Tony said as the door opened and the principal walked in.

"Pardon me Professor Kline," said the grey-haired man. I need to speak with Miss Potts and if Miss Stark could join us please?" Kisara looked over at Pepper and jabbed her head to the hallway. The red-head nodded and went into the hallway with the student-teacher and principal.

"You think she tried to arrest someone again?" Tony asked.

"I'm ignoring you," Rhodey said as he crossed his arms over his chest. The door shut with a light click and after a few seconds, Tony ripped out a blank piece of paper and crumpled it up before he headed to the recycle bin, located right next to the door. As he dropped the paper in, he looked out the door window and saw Pepper cover her mouth, eyes wide and Kisara placed her arms around the girl's shoulders.

"Class ends in ten minutes Mister Stark," Professor Kline said. "Unless you'd like to add to the fourteen tardies and seven absences you already have." Tony slowly moved back to his seat before he raised his hand again.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" he asked.

* * *

Kisara glanced from the two FBI agents guarding a hospital room to the red-head she was accompanying as the door opened, letting Pepper and her teacher into the room. Pepper covered a gasp at the sight of her father laying in the bed wrapped in enough bandages to make a mummy feel inadequate and hooked up to machines.

"The doctor will be here in a moment Pepper. Everything's going to be fine," one of the FBI agents said before he shut to door.

"Dad?" Pepper whispered as she walked over to her father's side. "Dad…A-Are you…" Pepper's voice became choked as she tried to keep from crying.

"Miss Potts?" asked a doctor as he came into the room. He was looking at Kisara.

"I'm sorry sir. I only came with Miss Potts as emotional support. She's the red-head over there," Kisara said as she nodded towards Pepper.

"Is…Is my dad okay?" Pepper asked quietly.

"He was banged up pretty bad but he's going to be alright. He's on medication so he'll be sleeping for a few days but otherwise he should make a full recovery," the doctor stated.

"What happened?"

"I really don't know…The injuries are unusual and the FBI aren't talking. Did your dad work with power lines by any chance?" the doctor asked as he checked his pager. "Excuse me Miss Potts." Pepper blinked furiously to try to keep her tears at bay.

Suddenly, her father's eyes shot open as he started gasping for air.

"Dad?" Pepper said. "Are you okay? What happened?" Kisara's eyes narrowed somewhat at Pepper's slower speech. "Power lines…Did someone do this to you?" Agent Potts grabbed hold of his daughter's arm and pulled her closer to his mouth.

"Mister…Mr. Fix," he whispered before his eyes closed again and his grip went slack. Pepper grabbed hold of her father's hand and snapped around towards Kisara.

"Can we get some help in here?!" the whitette demanded. The doctor from earlier came back in and smiled kindly.

"It's okay. He's been unconscious since we found him. This is just the body's way of healing itself," he explained calmly as the door opened again.

"Hey!" Tony said sharply as the FBI agent grabbed his shoulder.

"Tony? Rhodey?" Pepper asked.

"What are you two doing here?" Kisara pressed.

"Not just us," Rhodey said as Joey, Serenity, Tristan and Sarah all came in as well. Tony took a look at the man on the bed before he looked at Pepper, who was clenching her fists at her sides.

"Pepper…I'm sorry…I-"

"Tony! This isn't the best time," Kisara said with a hard glare.

"Are you alright Pepper?" he asked before mentally slapping himself. "_Of course she's not okay! Her dad's in the hospital for crying out loud!" _

"What do you care?!" Pepper choked before she headed for the door.

"Pepper." The red-head turned towards the whitette who had addressed her. "Why don't you go wait in my car? I can give you a ride home to pick up some stuff or drop you off if you like. But in this kind of situation I think it would be best for you to stay with a friend until all this is cleared up." Pepper nodded.

"May I stay with you Miss- I mean, Kisara?" Kisara nodded. A small, sad smile graced Pepper's face before she shut the door. Kisara turned to Tony again.

"You've got a lot of nerve asking her a question like that Anthony Edward Stark!" Kisara snapped.

"Kisara, can I talk to you in private?" he asked. Kisara sighed and headed for the door.

"I'm sorry Tony. But I have work I have to do, starting with taking care of Pepper. You know, I hear friends do that when their friends are hurt," Kisara said just before slamming the door shut. The doctor looked around as an awkward silence spread over the group.

"Well, I have other patients to attend to. So…" Without another word, he left the room. Tony sighed miserably.

"I told you so," Sarah said.

* * *

"I'm such a jerk," Tony muttered as he bent over his new armor. "I'm always blowing Pepper off, never taking her seriously." Rhodey sighed as he hung up his phone.

"She's still not answering her cell," he reported.

"Maybe we could try Kisara's number. Pepper did say she was stayin' with her," Joey offered.

"I don't know Kisara's cell phone number, her home number, her address…Heck, I don't even know what Pepper's mother's name is!" Tony growled to himself.

"The FBI that were guarding Pepper's dad…" Tristan pondered. "How much you guys wanna bet that someone did this to him?"

"I'm with you on that," Serenity said. "But if someone did attack him, I'm betting Pepper's going to do something."

"It's Pepper," Tony said. "She's not just going to sit around… And neither am I."

* * *

Kisara sighed as she put down her book and looked over at Pepper, who was busy on her father's computer.

"Are you hungry Pep? It's getting rather late. Would you like something to eat before bed or something?" Pepper didn't respond.

"Come on Dad. Searching FBI data bases," she muttered. Kisara stood up and touched the top of the laptop.

"Pepper, it's late. Maybe you'll be able to work better tomorrow." Pepper shook her head.

"Mr. Fix," she said as she typed it in.

* * *

The orange-red glow of the hard-light computer screens shone off the metal arms, torso and legs of a dark-skinned man with one eye covered in metal and the eye itself glowing red. His head was shaved bald save for the black goatee on his chin.

Three small tentacles plugged themselves into the computers which began to swiftly scanning through rows of binary code.

_"Search in progress." _One of the large computer screens began to show a map of New York before showing a head shot of Pepper. The man stared at the screen with indifference.

"Someone's still looking for me. Make them stop."

* * *

Pepper continued typing in the codes she knew her father used and the passwords to open the various firewalls that protected some of the FBI's greatest kept secrets.

"Pepper, are you sure you want to do this?" Kisara asked.

"My dad trusts me Kisara. I can't let him down. And I won't let the man who hurt my dad just walk around freely."

"I doubt he is. The FBI will probably keep an eye on anything he does. They probably have another agent on the case right now."

"Whoever they are, they're probably not nearly as good as my dad," Pepper countered. Kisara sighed as a car drove by the window, coming to a slow stop outside.

The door to the van opened and a few men dressed all in black stepped out carrying guns.

Silent as the night itself, they surrounded the two-story house, coming in through the windows and the back door. Carefully, they made their way through the house until they came to a closed door.

"Targets located. Proceeding with termination," said one of the men into the comlink in his helmet. Another man walked up to the door and kicked it in, and all men aimed their guns into the interior, which was vacant of all life. "Search the rest of the house!" the leader said to the others as he reached for the comlink in his helmet. "Sir, we have a problem."

* * *

Kisara and Pepper landed on their feet and looked back up at the window from the second story they'd just leapt from.

"Come on," Kisara said as she grabbed Pepper's arm and started running down the street. Pepper fished around in her pockets until she found her phone. Quickly she dialed a familiar number.

"Come on. Please pick up. Please pick up!" she pleaded.

* * *

"Patricia Potts, aka Pepper…That's adorable," the cyborg man said with indifference as an image of the running girls appeared on one of his screens. "And Kisara Stark. A student-teacher at Miss Pott's school. And cousin to Anthony Stark, aka, Tony. Trace Pepper's cell phone." As he spoke, the tentacles plugged themselves back into the computers.

* * *

Tony sighed miserably to himself as he took off into the New York night.

"What do you guys think Pepper wanted me for? She said she wanted to talk to me in private."

_"Maybe she just wanted you to listen to her for once," _Rhodey said through the comlink.

_"Yea. I hear it's somethin' friends do for each other," _Joey agreed.

"_Not you of course, but friends in general," _Tristan said.

_"Cut it out you guys," _Serenity scolded. _"Where are you even going?" _

"I hacked into the ambulance company that picked up Pepper's dad. Thought I'd check out where they found him," Tony explained. "It sounded like she wanted me to do something for her."

_"Quick question Tony, if you can hack into an ambulance company to find where one man was picked up, why don't you use those abilities to find out where your cousin lives?" _Serenity asked.

"Thank you for reminding me of that," Tony said.

"_Ohp! Pepper's calling. I think you should pick it up," _Rhodey said.

"I'm routing the call through the armor," Tony reported. "Pepper? I'm on three-way with Rhodey. Are you-"

"_Tony!_ _Running! In the city! Kisara! GUNS!" _Pepper shouted into her phone.

_"WHAT?!" _said everyone in the armory and armor.

* * *

_"Okay, this time. More words," _Tony ordered as Kisara lead Pepper through the alley. Pepper pulled on her arm and stopped the both of them. She paused only to catch her breath.

"My dad was investigating a guy called Mr. Fix, some kind of…Inventor?" Kisara nodded. "Yea, inventor. He's a high-tech arms dealer. He supplies guys like the Maggia!" Pepper started walking down the alley towards the street. "Ooh! All I did was type his name into the FBI data base and now Kisara and I have Black Ops guys chasing us!" Kisara grabbed hold of Pepper's arm and yanked her back as the black truck came to a screeching halt right in front of them.

"Run!" Kisara ordered. Pepper didn't hesitate as the two ran in the opposite direction.

* * *

"Rhodey, I'm isolating Pepper's cell phone signal. Do you see it?" Tony asked as he changed his direction.

_"We got it! I see her! What is this, satellite imagery?" _Rhodey asked.

"I'll thank NASA later. You guys have to buy her some time until I get there."

* * *

"_Pepper, it's Rhodey. Turn down 43rd Street then cut through the alley. The vans can't fit through there." _Pepper nodded as Kisara turned down the directed route.

"How did you know what he said?" Pepper asked.

"He's a little loud. And being good at hearing is something I picked up while I was away from New York. It's actually quite easy to do once you're out of the city," Kisara explained. The truck appeared at the other end of the alley and a man leapt out of the truck and started firing at the girls. "Keep moving!" Kisara ordered as she turned around and pulled Pepper into a side alley as the bullets caused sparks to fly around their feet.

_"Pepper! Cut through the building. It'll take you to 42nd Street," _Rhodey advised. Kisara lead Pepper to the large red-brick building and started pulling against the two large doors surrounded by graffiti.

"It's locked!" she reported.

"Thanks a lot Rhodey! Oh! Are there any dead-end alleys you can lead me to? Maybe Kisara and I should just hide in the bad guys' truck! They'd never find us in there!"

_"Uh…Pick the lock!" _Kisara started looking around the alley and noticed a window just above the closed dumpster next to the door and a stack of bricks on the other side. _"Use a credit card or kick it in!" _Kisara picked up one of the bricks.

"Step back Pepper," she ordered. Pepper did as told and Kisara threw the brick, smashing the window.

_"Or, break the window. That works too," _Rhodey admitted. Kisara grabbed onto the lid of the dumpster and flipped herself over before offering a hand to Pepper.

"How did you do that?" Pepper asked, awestruck.

"Another trick I learned while on my own," Kisara said quickly as she pulled out a few shards of glass from the window and she slid inside. "Come on, hurry." Pepper did as told.

* * *

"They're cutting through the building. Circle around," the cyborg ordered as his metallic fingers began pressing keys on his chair. "Clever girls. But perhaps little Miss Potts and Miss Stark are getting some help. Who is she talking to?"

_"Error! Unable to track receiving signal. Unknown firewall in place." _The man's human eye narrowed and his fingers laced themselves together as a black figure came up behind him.

"Problem?" he said. His voice sounded like it was coming through a gas mask.

"Not a problem. A mystery. Whoever she's talking to must have the most advanced cell phone on the planet. I think this is someone I should talk to." The cyborg looked up at the man behind him, dressed in black with his joints covered in red plating and his face was covered with a red mask that was similar to a gas mask.

* * *

Kisara kicked down the front door and looked around the street as Pepper came out behind her.

"Rhodey I think we lost them…" Kisara growled.

"No we haven't Pepper!" she yelled as she grabbed Pepper's arm and pulled her down the street as the black van came up on the sidewalk. The girls ran out into the street and the van followed them.

Suddenly, Iron Man rammed his shoulder into the back end of the truck, sending it flying in a turn-over into a lamppost. Pepper and Kisara kept running until one more black van came into their path. The side door opened and three more black-clad men holding guns appeared. They leapt from the vehicle and starting shooting.

"Hit the dirt!" Kisara yelled as she tackled Pepper.

_PING! _Pepper and Kisara looked up to see the armored hero standing in front of them, the bullets bouncing off his armor like a ball bouncing off a wall.

"**Pepper! Kisara! Get to Rhodey's house you'll be safe there!" **Iron Man ordered. The girls pushed themselves to their feet and started running down the street.

_"How does Iron Man know ours and Rhodey's names?" _Kisara thought to herself as she looked over her shoulder. Iron Man had activated his shields while the girls hadn't been paying attention. He shut off the shields and blasted at the men and their truck, sending all of them flying down the street. The sounds of more screeching tires filled the air and another truck zipped past Iron Man. "Don't look back Pepper," Kisara instructed.

Tony glared at the truck as it sped past him.

_"Warning. Intrusion alert. Communications in jeopardy." _

"What?!" Tony demanded.

_"Tony! Someone's hacking into the armory's com systems!" _Tristan warned.

_"Is…Is dat even possible?" _Joey asked.

"Shut it down!" Tony ordered.

_"Guys? Are you still there?...Okay. If you can hear me, Kisara and I are on our way to Rhodey's house," _Pepper said into her phone.

* * *

"_Repeat: Kisara and I are on our way to Rhodey's house!" _Suddenly, all the screens went blank.

"I've been shut out," growled the cyborg as he started rapidly typing at his computer but his screens stayed blank. "This is no longer amusing."

"Who can shut you out?" asked the man in the gas mask. A few beeps from the computers and the screens turned back on, now featuring Iron Man as their subject.

"Iron Man. Now this is interesting," the cyborg said as Pepper and Kisara's headshots appeared on a screen and the Tomorrow Academy under them. Rhodey's picture, a photo of his house and another one of Pepper appeared on another screen. "James Rhodes. Aka Rhodey. A school-mate of Miss Potts and one of Miss Stark's students." The picture of Rhodey's house enlarged so it took up most of the screen. "Time for a house call," said the cyborg as he looked at the other man.

* * *

"Hurry Pepper!" Kisara said as the sounds of tires coming down the alley followed the girls, who quickly ran into the street. The truck followed them, ignoring the loud honking of other drivers.

The man sitting in the shotgun seat pulled out a gun and leaned out the window as he lined his gun up with the girls. Pepper gasped as the bullets again began to make a shower of sparks at her feet. Kisara looked back and growled as the truck gained on them.

"Pepper!" the whitette gasped just as Iron Man came out of the sky and wrapped an arm around each girl's waist and pulled them up into the sky.

**"You're going to be okay now Pe-Uh…Ladies…Whoever you are," **Iron Man said.

"Thanks…Tony," Pepper said with a smirk as she nuzzled her head against his armored neck. Kisara cocked an eyebrow at her.

**"Tony? Uh…I think you have me confused with someone else," **Iron Man said simply.

"Relax. I know it's you. I'm not stupid. My dad is a professional investigator, remember?" Pepper said.

"And besides, no one uses the bathroom as much as Tony Stark," Kisara added. Iron Man looked down and sighed slowly. The mask clicked open, showing Tony's face.

"How long have you guys known?" he asked as his cousin's eyes went as wide as saucers.

"We didn't!" Pepper said. "Oh but I do now! I can't believe you're really Iron Man! I thought maybe you were, like I tried to ask you..."

"Whoa…" Kisara said. "We're actually flying."

"This is awesome!" Pepper said.

"Okay, two things. One, you stink Pepper. And two, this is what I wanted to tell you at the hospital Kisara," Tony explained. "I'll take you guys to Rhodey's house. You should be safe there. But when all this is done, I'll have to wipe your memories."

"Really?" Kisara asked. Tony shook his head.

"No. I'm actually contemplating dropping you two," Tony joked.

* * *

As the morning sun began to peek over the horizon, Pepper and Kisara darted up the steps to Rhodey's house. Pepper quickly opened the door.

"Rhodey? Joey. Serenity. Tristan! We're alive. We…" Pepper's voice trailed off at the sight of their friends all tied up in large fin-like chains that were attached to a man dressed in black with red plating on his joints and a red gas mask on his face.

"Hello Miss Stark…And Pepper, you look just like your dad," he mocked. With a flick of his wrists he sent the hostages to the floor in front of Kisara and Pepper, who reached down to help them up.

"Mr. Fix?" Pepper said quietly as she and the others took a step back.

"Not quite. Mr. Fix made my arms for me and now I'm…working off my debt. Odd jobs like…Shutting up nosy teenage girls," he said as the electrowhips came out. Serenity's phone began to ring.

"Oh…Sorry. One second," she chuckled lightly as she pulled the phone out and flipped it open but didn't put it against her ear. "Hello?"

**"DUCK!" **Kisara tackled everyone down as Iron Man blasted through the door, grabbed the man by the shoulders and blasted out the wall before throwing him down on the concrete below. **"So what do they call you? The Whipping Boy? Whipo? Whip-It-Good?" **

"Funny. Fix thought he might run into you someday so he made me," the man said.

**"Really? I'm flattered," **Iron Man said sarcastically. The man flicked his wrists and his electrowhips shot out of his arms and around Iron Man before yanking him down to the ground.

"And by the way, the name's Whiplash," he introduced. Slowly, he walked over to Iron Man and tapped his helmet with his foot. The armored hero didn't respond. "Well, that was disappointing."

"Iron Man!" Pepper screamed as she and the others ran towards the two men. Whiplash snapped around.

"Maybe you six can help cheer me up. Please, make it interesting…" Whiplash brought out his electrowhips. "Run."

"Move!" Kisara ordered as Whiplash snapped a whip right in front of them.

"I didn't realize your dad was still alive. Otherwise I would've finished the job. He actually found Mr. Fix impressive but fatal," Whiplash taunted as the group kept running towards the armory with Whiplash following them.

Tony pushed himself up and clicked the mask out of his way so he could gasp for air.

* * *

"Iron Man showing up to save you was pretty lucky girl. Or do you know who he really is?" Whiplash mocked as he searched the wearhouse for the group that had evaded him. Pepper bit nervously on her lip before she moved a little closer to Kisara. The girls looked upwards at where Rhodey was hiding with Joey while Tristan was keeping Serenity close on the opposite wall, hiden by a small wooden platform.

Whiplash kept on walking.

"Although," Whiplash drawled on as he pulled out his whips, "I guess it doesn't matter now since-" Rhodey stood up from where he was and threw a large chunk of metal at Whiplash.

"Everyone! Run!" Joey yelled. Serenity did as told.

"Serenity! Wait!" Tristan yelled as Whiplash's whip snapped around Serenity and tugged her close to him.

"Oh, you're a cute one…I'll try not to mess up that pretty face of yours," Whiplash sneered. He didn't notice Pepper fleeing the scene.

"Get yer hands off my sister!" Joey growled as he leapt at Whiplash, only to become ensnared by the free whip and thrown against the wall. Tristan snarled at the man. A small beep went off in Whiplash's helmet.

"What?! I'm right in the middle of something," he snapped.

_"The girl Whiplash. She's escaping right now while you waste time," _Mr. Fix said over the intercom. Whiplash snarled and threw Serenity away. Tristan ran and caught the girl in his arms, a light smile crossing his features.

* * *

Pepper ran to the collapsed heap of armor and started shaking it.

"Please wake up. Please be okay. Please help us. WAKE UP!" she yelled, tears beginning to choke her voice as the mask opened, showing no one inside. "Gah!" Pepper looked around to see if Tony was around but only Whiplash came into her line of vision. Without thinking, Pepper wrapped her arms around the empty husk of armor as the man brought out his electrowhips.

"You really should have run." Pepper bit her tongue to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. "Nothing personal," Whiplash assured as he snapped a whip back. Pepper's eyes closed as she waited for the painful death…

That never came.

"How?! WHO?!" Whiplash wheezed. Pepper opened her eyes slowly and hovering in the air, holding Whiplash's whip in hand, was a silver and red Iron Man.

"**Don't strain yourself," **Iron Man said as he grabbed more of the whip and threw the wielder into the air. **"And by the way…" **Iron Man landed a punch square in Whiplash's jaw, sending him flying into the small power area that powered the house and compound. **"The name's Iron Man." **

Whiplash snapped his whips out again and sent them flying so they wrapped around Iron Man's boots and pulled him into the ground. The hero quickly stood up and fired the unabeam from his chest, making red electricity snap and crackle around his body. Once the beam vanished, Iron Man took off after Whiplash, who'd been sent across the power structure.

"Okay, now I'm confused," Pepper muttered as she looked from one Iron Man to the other.

Iron Man and Whiplash were caught in a dangerous dance. Whiplash's electrowhips around Iron Man's torso while the armored man sent punches and kicks towards the other. Iron Man took off into the skies and blasted Whiplash with his repulsors, sending him skidding back several feet before he came back swinging and managed to get Iron Man's back with his electrowhip before snapping it around him and running around in circles, entangling the hero in the deadly coils.

Iron Man grabbed hold of the whip and yanked on it so Whiplash was brought close enough for Iron Man to grab a hand and blast it with his repulsor before shoving his knee into Whiplash's stomach. The man retaliated with a few electric shocks to Iron Man's back before grabbing his face and holding him away from the hand holding the whip as the air began to reek of ozone from the whip.

"Struggle all you like," Whiplash taunted. "I can fry Iron Man all day long."

Iron Man blasted at Whiplash, making him release his mask and the hero started a small struggle that ended with him on his back with Whiplash's whip tighter around him.

_"Power flux in progress. Situation critical." _Tony growled loudly before his unabeam shot Whiplash off him and into the power cables. The villain screamed loudly before the whole thing exploded, sending Iron Man a few meters away and a piece of Whiplash's whip landing next to him.

Slowly the hero stood up.

"Whiplash?" One more explosion rocked the ground as Iron Man walked towards the armory, stepping on Whiplash's whip and crushing it underfoot as he did so.

* * *

"Pepper's dad woke up," Rhodey reported.

"Is he going to be okay?" Serenity asked still seated in Tristan's arms despite being in the safety of Tony's room. Joey was glaring at his brunette friend while holding an ice pack to his head and eating his eggs and toast.

'They say he's going to be fine. The police are still down stairs and they're going to take her to see him. Do you think Mr. Fix will come after them again?" Rhodey asked. Tony shook his head as he ate another piece of his breakfast, the same thing Joey was eating.

"No. The trail's cold. They're no threat to him now," Tony said.

"But Iron Man is," Joey countered. Tony nodded, a worried look crossing his features.

"He's a genius guys. And right now he's probably coming up with a hundred new super-weapons to take me down," Tony said. "Unless I stop him." The door opened.

"You mean we right?" Pepper asked as she and Kisara came inside the room.

"Anthony Edward Stark. I can't believe you. Not only do you have a heart condition, but you're a minor and this whole Iron Man thing is making you a vigilante. You do realize that right?"

"And I can't believe you nerds didn't tell us. Don't you trust us? I know I'm crazy trustworthy and Kisara's pretty good herself," Pepper said quickly. "We could've totally helped you fight crime weeks ago! OH! We should be out fighting crime right now!"

"Pepper!" Kisara whispered.

"Shh!" Serenity hissed.

"Sorry," Pepper said before she turned to Tony. "But why didn't you tell us?!" Tony chuckled.

"I tried to tell you a hundred times, Pep, but you won't stop talking long enough to let me," Tony said as he shook his fork at her accusingly. Pepper looked around the room, pieces of words coming out of her mouth before she managed to think of one word.

"Seriously?"

"And as for you Kisara…" Tony's face became downcast. "I'm ashamed to say that after you ran off, I didn't see a reason for you to do it so I got mad." Kisara smiled a little before going over to the raven-haired teen and pulling him into a hug.

"Tony, we can't change what's past. We can only forget and move forward. So I say we move forward towards a new future as a family. Okay?" Tony nodded and returned his cousin's hug.

"Aw," Serenity said as she wrapped her arms around Tristan's neck. "I love happy endings." Tristan's face went red as a cherry as Joey's fists clenched at his sides and his snarling became a little more evident.

* * *

**Phoenix: OH MY GOSH! **

**Cerberus: ACTION!**

**Phoenix: I can't believe this. Not a single review on either of my stories that I updated earlier this week or on Autobot00001's Star Crossed Lovers. Can someone please be nice and just drop by any of the stories and say, nice work? Is that too much to ask? Okay, I'm done with this chapter now. Review, check out Star Crossed Lovers, leave a review there and tell people you know to check out the stories and leave a review! Please!**


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